Council meeting cancelled due to Coronavirus pressures

A meeting of the Isle of Wight Council has been cancelled due to the ongoing pressures of coronavirus.

The policy and scrutiny committee for health and social care was supposed to meet at 5 pm today (March 16), where items including the future of Shackleton Ward, non-emergency patient transport and ambulance response times were to be consulted on.

The chairman of the committee, Cllr John Nicholson, spoke to health and social care partners due to attend the meeting tonight and decided ‘due to pressures placed upon services’ needing to deal with the virus, the meeting would be cancelled.

This comes as the second case of Covid-19 was diagnosed on the Island over the past weekend and further guidance has been issued to try and delay the spread of the virus.

Schools remain open but advice will now be issued daily from the government to try and give the latest help — which may include the isolation of those over 70 and the banning of mass gatherings, following in Scotland’s footsteps, of more than 500 people.

Latest NHS advice is for those experiencing a high temperature and continuous cough to self-isolate for seven days with no need to phone 111 due to the overwhelming number of calls the service has faced recently.

It asks you do phone 111 if you feel you cannot cope with symptoms at home, your condition gets worse or the symptoms do not go away after seven days.