Coronavirus: Hastings' Second Wave Likely To Hit Harder

The second wave of coronavirus is likely to hit Hastings harder than the first, a senior council official has warned.

Speaking at a meeting on Monday (October 12), Hastings Borough Council’s chief executive Jane Hartnell warned that the town’s previously low infection rates will be closer to “the English average” once new statistics are published this week. 

She said:

“The picture in Hastings for Covid cases is changing very rapidly and not in a brilliant trajectory. 

“At the moment we are still trying to understand exactly where the outbreaks and transmissions are occurring, but we are going to be up there with the English average, because of what is going on locally. 

“Health colleagues are obviously working very hard to understand that because clearly we were a very low outbreak area the first time round. Some of the early thinking is that because the virus wasn’t significantly around in our community at that moment, it wasn’t able to transmit. 

“Clearly it is now, so some of the factors other areas faced – particularly areas of deprivation – mean that might be a significant issue for us now.”

Ms Hartnell went on to say the council is now “back in response phase” and was working on measures to ensure residents had access to immediate support. This would build on what was learnt during the first wave of Covid infections, she said.

The council’s work included financial support for residents and businesses, such as the self-isolation payments, as well as plans to increase access to testing, through both local and mobile testing units.

Ms Hartnell said preparatory work was also underway to prepare for the distribution of a vaccine, should one become available in the coming months. 

Ms Hartnell had been speaking at a meeting of the Hastings and St Leonards Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), which saw a range of organisations share information around the town’s recovery plans, as well as the pressures presented by a second wave.

These pressures included the potential for increased economic uncertainty, should local people lose their jobs in large numbers. 

Attendants to discuss the issue included Bruce Campbell of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

He said there had not been a further surge of new Universal Credit claimants in the local area since the beginning of the initial coronavirus outbreak, but neither had there been any significant reduction in claimant numbers over that period. 

However, he said, further claims are expected following the end of the furlough scheme.

He said:

“Some 30 per cent of the working age population of East Sussex access the furlough scheme and the self-employed income support scheme. 

“We know the upcoming changes to that are going to impact on the number of people needing to access our services, but we are able to pivot back to manage our core business, which is paying benefit.”  

The director of the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce Sean Dennis, meanwhile, warned that many businesses in the town were facing a ‘third winter’, following the national lockdown earlier this year.

Mr Dennis said:

“It is quite a mixed picture. There are some sectors that are clearly benefiting. There are others who have either caught up or are playing catch up and are confident that, if the recovery continues in the current vein, they will bounce back by the end of the year. 

“There are [also] the obvious sectors – tourism, retail, hospitality and culture, which are particularly key to Hastings and the surrounding area – which are amongst those who have been hit the hardest, particularly as we move into the winter period.

“Many in those sectors are effectively facing a third winter of trading, given the impact on their trading over the summer period.”