Covid-19: Hertfordshire health boss says 'work from home if you can'

Jim McManus said many employees were offering people a hybrid working model - where people work partly at home and partly in the office

A council has asked residents to "work from home if they can", despite calls from the prime minster for people to get back into the office.

Hertfordshire's director of public health hopes the policy will cut transmission rates to prevent those unvaccinated from getting Covid-19.

Jim McManus said reducing interaction "really does help cut infection".

The county has higher case rates than 12 months ago, but fewer people need hospital treatment.

Mr McManus said this time last year, there were 55 Covid-19 cases in Hertfordshire, per 100,000 population, but now that rate - at about 350 per 100,000 population - is more than six times higher, as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"We are in a very different place than we were last year because the vaccine has made a difference," he said.

"But the vaccine is not the only thing - and we still need people to take some measures to stop infection, because it is largely people who are unvaccinated who are getting seriously ill."

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Health officials and Hertfordshire County Council have developed a winter health guide, which will be delivered to all homes in the county.

It advises people to get the Covid-19 vaccination and a booster jab if they qualify; to wear masks in crowded or enclosed places such as public transport; to take regular lateral flow tests before meeting people; and to continue to regularly wash and sanitise hands.

Mr McManus said the virus was still spreading "very happily", aided by the rise of the Delta variant.

"Don't take it as a slavish rule, but if you work from home at least part of the week - so you reduce your social interaction - that really does help cut infection," he said.

"It will reduce something like, for the average person, 60 to 70 in-person contacts a week.