Coronavirus (COVID-19) Advisory Sub-Group on Universities and Colleges minutes: May 2022
- Published
- 15 June 2022
- Part of
- Education
- Date of meeting
- 24 May 2022
Minutes of the meeting of the group on 24 May 2022.
Attendees and apologies
Advisory Group members:
- Prof Linda Bauld (Chair)
- Prof Brigid Daniel
- Prof Julie Fitzpatrick
- Jon Vincent
SG Covid Analysis Division:
- Brett MacGillivray
- Audrey MacDougall
Public Health Scotland:
- Dr Shifa Sarica
SG Covid Vaccination:
- David Hamilton
SG Test and Protect:
- Katrina Troake
- Caroline Pretty
SG (observing):
- Stevie Boal
- William Quinn
- Alan Sloan
- Nicolas White
- Iona Dempsie
- Steven Scott
- Fraser Syme
- Helen Raftopoulos
- David Hamilton
Secretariat:
- John Keenan
- Alistair Imlach
Items and actions
Welcome and introductions
The meeting was Chaired by Prof Linda Bauld. The Chair welcomed David Hamilton from SG Vaccine Operational Policy and, Caroline Pretty and Kat Troake from the Test and Protect team to support discussions on vaccinations and the new ‘stay at home’ guidance. The Chair also welcomed Dr Shifa Sarica who will be providing the PHS Covid Surveillance Update and Brett MacGillivray who will present the Covid modelling update. The Chair thanked everyone for their participation and noted apologies were received from Prof Marion Bain, Prof Chris Chapman, Linda McKay, Gary Gillespie, Prof Paul Flowers, Prof Ian Rivers, Prof Steve Reicher, Dr Ellie Hothersall, Dr Diane Stockton and Dr Eileen Scott.
Following on from the email that members received the previous week confirming that this was to be the last EAG meeting before being stood down, the Chair expressed her thanks for all of the members’ contributions and added that she looked forward to agenda item 6 for their reflections on the work of the EAG.
Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
Sub-group members were content for the minutes of the previous meeting to be published.
The Chair updated members on the following:
- there was the action from the previous EAG meeting on collecting postcode data associated with college student accommodation. However, as PHS can no longer analyse the college data, the action is closed
- the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) met on 3rd May. The key points of that meeting were mostly in relation to long Covid where there was a presentation from Chris Doyle, SG Clinical Priorities Unit who discussed Scottish Government’s (SG) strategic approach and its ongoing development, resourcing and implementation of services for people with long Covid. The members were keen to hear more from the EAG on this, so the minutes of the previous meeting, where the EAG held a substantial discussion on long Covid, are to be circulated with CRG members
- the main national development since the group last met is the changes to testing and self-isolation as described in the ‘stay at home’ guidance published by SG on 1st May
Student Surveillance dashboard update
Dr Shifa Sarica summarised the latest figures, vaccine uptake, testing outcomes, incidents in FE/HE, symptom surveillance and outcomes:
- vaccine uptake data continues to show rates of vaccine uptake over time to be increasing slowly but remains relatively low for the 3rd dose in the 17-21 and 22-29-year-old age groups (45.1% and 52.3% respectively)
- seroprevalance data estimates that 97.47% of 16-25 year olds currently have antibodies to COVID-19 infection
- hospital and ICU admissions for age groups related to students continue to decrease, which is broadly in line with the rest of the population
- ONS infection survey results show overall rates of infection for the typical student age groups continue to decline
Modelling: projections for the Academic Year
Brett MacGillivray updated members on recent modelling outputs summarising that:
- currently the growth rate (R) is estimated to be between 0.7 and 0.9
- actual infection data at population level continues to decline, following the “central” or “better” forecast
- hospital and ICU occupancy data continues to decline, following the “central” or “better” forecast. Covid-19 mortality rates are also very low
- the Scottish Contact Survey indicates an average of 4.9 contacts per individual and responses of participants have indicated lower rates in the wearing of face coverings following the lift of the face covering mandate
- wastewater surveillance testing reported rates to be down overall in May
In discussion to agenda items 3 and 4, the following points were made in response to both presentations:
- members discussed the Scottish Contact Survey data not presenting a large increase in the number of workplace contacts
- members discussed to what extent the actual data has followed the modelling
Vaccinations, testing and ‘Stay at Home’ guidance
The Chair welcomed David Hamilton, Caroline Pretty and Kat Troake to open a discussion on the current position of SG guidance as well as how the group could support an increase in vaccination uptake.
David Hamilton gave the group an update on the current operational policy position on vaccinations. Local health boards are still offering all 3 vaccine doses to all age categories with specific groups being contacted directly if eligible for further boosters.
In discussion the following points were made:
- with the lifting of restrictions together with the levels of Covid-19 within the population decreasing, it is likely to become more challenging to encourage individuals to get themselves fully vaccinated
- the key message for the age demographic of HE/FE students is to get their 3rd vaccine dose
- as a mass media vaccine communications campaign over the summer period is unlikely, the importance of a peer led approach was emphasised
- members discussed the benefits of offering on campus pop-up vaccine centres / vaccine buses
- Jon Vincent to contact David Hamilton to discuss how colleges can request vaccine buses to attend campuses at the start of the next academic year with a view to tackling the lower vaccine uptake for 2nd and 3rd doses
- members discussed how institutions could explore the opportunity to target misinformation and how to further educate students on the use of evidence and understanding data and studies. This should be considered in advance of any waves of infection
- David Hamilton to share any materials which have been produced for other sectors and may be tailored or used in the HE/FE sector
Caroline Pretty and Kat Troake gave the group an update on the current operational policy position on testing and when to ‘stay at home’.
In discussion the following points were made:
- supporting officials highlighted the importance of continuing to promote SG communications already in circulation such as the Covid Sense campaign. It was also acknowledged that there was a degree of confusion within the general population around self-isolation guidance and that effective communication would help address this
- members discussed the benefits of providing institutions with a summary of SG guidance related to Covid-safe behaviours such as how to go about getting vaccinated from when to ‘stay at home’. Officials to produce a summary of SG Covid guidance for institutions before July
Reflections of the EAG
The Chair asked members for reflections on the work the group. The following points were made in discussion:
- the group benefitted from having a breadth of members with different expertise and perspectives
- working closely with sector and having meetings with representatives from stakeholder groups was considered very helpful by members
- the lack of HE/FE specific research into Covid-19 compared to research focused at school age settings proved to be challenging
- if the group is re-convened in the future, members should consider what information/ data would be useful so that it can be gathered as early as possible
- for colleges, the disparity of treatment between educational and workplace settings proved particularly challenging for vocational courses which have large elements of practical learning or workplace experience. There has been a material impact on the dropout and retention rates for these courses in particular
Jon Vincent to work with Public Health Scotland to produce statistics related to the impact of Covid-19 on equality in Higher and Further education.
The Chair asked members to contribute any other reflections to John Keenan.
AOB and close
The Chair brought the meeting to a close, thanking all members for their time and valuable contributions throughout the time that the group had convened.
Actions
- Jon Vincent to contact David Hamilton to discuss how colleges can request vaccine buses to attend campuses at the start of the next academic year with a view to tackling the lower vaccine uptake for 2nd and 3rd doses
- David Hamilton to share any materials with members which have been produced for other sectors and may be tailored or used in the HE/FE sector
- officials to produce a summary of SG Covid guidance for institutions before July
- Jon Vincent to work with Public Health Scotland to help analyse statistics related to the impact of Covid-19 on equality in Higher and Further education
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