How did Bolton manage to bring its huge Covid-19 Delta variant spike under control?
For all the latest news from in and around Bolton, sign up for the free MyBolton newsletter Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice  Things in Bolton could finally be looking up. For more than a month the town has been making national headlines for its skyrocketing Covid-19 infection rates and the desperate efforts being made to bring the spread of the virus under control. But now, on the chart showing Greater Manchester's latest transmission rates there is only one borough with that small but encouraging green arrow next to its name. Infections rates in Bolton are still higher than anywhere else in the region, and local leaders have stressed that the town needs to take an 'extremely cautious approach', but it looks like the borough could be moving past its latest coronavirus spike. (Image: MEN)  Bolton's rate is no longer the highest in the country, with nearby Blackburn with Darwen taking the top spot. The borough has recorded 314.7 cases for every 100,000 people over the past week. This is still higher than second placed Salford at 295.6 cases per 100,000 but while the rate in Salford is rising at speed, the numbers in Bolton have dropped by 14 percent on the same period seven days ago. This positive movement has not come about on its own but is testament to the incredible hard work and effort of thousands of doctors, nurses, health officials and volunteers who pushed back against the spread of the virus. The town's vaccination scheme has captured national headlines and Health Secretary Matt Hancock has referred to Bolton's Covid-busting efforts as a possible 'model' for other areas to follow. Now, Dr Jenny Harries, head of the newly created UK Health Security Agency, has paid a visit to the borough to see whether national public health teams can learn lessons from the 'absolutely fabulous' work the town has been doing to stop the spread of new variants. (Image: Bolton Council)  While the pandemic has been tough for people across the UK, Bolton is a town that has borne the brunt of the Covid crisis. A total of 657 coronavirus patients have died at the Royal Bolton Hospital, with three more people passing away as a result of the virus in the last few days. The town has been under lockdown restrictions - local, national and otherwise - for just about as long as anywhere else in England. And, while other areas of the UK have suffered through three waves of the pandemic, health experts here believe there have been four separate local peaks. So, when infection rates began to rise in late April there were serious concerns about what it could mean. When it came, the spike happened extremely quickly. On April 22, the seven-day rolling infection rate in Bolton was at 41.7 cases per 100,000 people - a fortnight later it had more than doubled. On May 21, the rate reached a peak of 452.8 cases per 100,000 - ten times higher than it had been when the spike began a month earlier. As the numbers continued to rise, local and national public health teams began to ask what could be behind the town's sudden and unexpected increase in cases. The answer came in the form of B.1.671.2 - a strain of coronavirus first discovered in Indian and now named the Delta variant. This new form of the virus is thought to have been brought into Bolton by people travelling back and forth from India and Pakistan and is more transmissible than the previously dominant strains. (Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)  It quickly spread through groups of young people in key hotspot areas before beginning to move into older, more vulnerable age groups. This sudden increase in cases garnered national attention, especially as Bolton's infection rate rose to become the highest in England - not for the first time. Public health teams in Bolton were able to pinpoint the majority of outbreaks to the Deane, Rumworth and Great Lever areas of town which led a number of senior figures, including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Bolton MP Mark Logan, to begin lobbying the government for extra supplies to support a mass vaccination programme. When these extra supplies arrived, in mid-May, volunteers, staff and community leaders began a huge push to jab as many people as possible, calling on residents to visit walk-in vaccination centres even if they did not know they were eligible, with Dr Helen Wall - the GP behind the borough's vaccination scheme - saying teams would 'find reasons to vaccinate rather than turning people away'. The vaccination drive garnered national attention and more than 300,000 people watched a video on Twitter showing huge queues outside a walk-in centre in Great Lever, shared by Bolton comedian Paddy McGuinness. "Its a strong town and Ive no doubt theyll get on top of this. Cmon Bolton!" he wrote. The project was hugely successful, with teams vaccinating more than 6,500 in just one weekend on May 15 and 16. Now, a total of 299,000 jabs have been given out in Bolton, with 178,00 people receiving their first dose and 121,000 being fully vaccinated. In comparison, neighbouring Bury has handed out 117,000 first jabs and 83,000 second doses. But, while the vaccination branch of Bolton's Covid response has probably earned the most column inches, it is not the real reason behind the town's success in lowering its infection rates. (Image: MEN)  "The vaccine will not stop an acute outbreak," Dr Harries explained as she walked around the testing centre at Bolton's Victoria Hall. "It takes two or three weeks for the vaccine to kick in and then you need a gap - particularly with Astra Zeneca - and another vaccine dose, so two doses definitely in the longer term will help all areas. "I do recognise that Manchester and the North West particularly has been really badly effected through the pandemic so yes we need to get the vaccination rates up. "But actually what's really helped in Bolton is people coming forward to get tested so that you can see where the cases are and support people to break those chains of transmission. It makes everybody safer across the whole community." Testing in Bolton was rolled out at speed in Deane, Rumworth and Great Lever from the early days of May, with the council and Bolton's NHS CCG sending testers door-to-door in problem areas and encouraging anyone to get tested in case they were an symptomatic carrier. (Image: Daily Mirror/Andy Stenning)  In the week before infection rates peaked on May 21, a massive total of 22,200 people - ten percent of the population - were tested across the borough, with just over six percent returning positive results. Public health experts were initially concerned about a hesitancy from residents to isolate early in the latest wave of cases, especially as life appeared to be returning to normal in other parts of the country. But, as staff and volunteers began to make their way into the communities where the Delta variant was spreading, they received a 'magnificent' level of support, Dr Helen Lowey, Bolton's Director of Public Health has explained. Teams discovered that, far from being reluctant, many people were simply unable to stay at home for extended periods because of their circumstances. "Part of the programme of work that we've done has been to support people who are having to isolate as well," Dr Lowey said. "Not just from the financial - yes that's important - but also other support such as food shopping, support for people who care for other people, even dog walking and so on." As testing continued, Dr Lowey's department was able to build up a picture of how the virus was spreading - particularly between young people - and, when concerns were raised about increasing numbers of cases in other parts of the borough, door-to-door testing was quickly extended to Halliwell and the town centre. Cases peaked on May 18, when 284 people tested positive for the virus on the same day. It was the highest number of positive results in Bolton since the height of the second wave in November 2020. The huge number of new cases being found in the borough raised serious concerns that hospital admissions could rapidly increase. However, partly because so many older, more vulnerable people had been vaccinated, the latest wave of Covid has had a limited impact on the Royal Bolton Hospital. The hospital saw a peak of around 50 people being treated for the virus, and had to open a second ward in late May, but this was still much lower than the 160 people being treated at the height of the second wave and gave the rest of the country hope, Dr Harries explained. "We still do not have definitive data on the effectiveness of the vaccine but it's looking very good in terms of protecting people from serious illness and hospitalisations," she said. (Image: Getty Images)  Care homes too, have remained largely unaffected by the current wave of cases, with no positive tests or deaths in homes in Bolton for weeks. But, Coun Andy Morgan, the town's lead for adult social care and the manager of several care homes in Bolton, says officials 'cannot get complacent'. He said: "This doesn't mean there isn't still a massive job to do in the town and we've still got our foot on the pedal, we're still going for it. "Even if the rates do start to drop it doesn't mean we're going to stop doing what we're doing. Should another variant come forward we're going to be in a much better place. Sign up to The Northern Agenda newsletter Our free Northern Agenda daily newsletter looks at the political stories that really matter across the North. It features the analysis of award-winning MEN political editor Jennifer Williams and the team of local democracy reporters across the North West, plus informed insight from political journalists on our sister titles in Yorkshire, Humber and the North East. To sign up, just click on this link, enter your email address and follow the instructions  Part of the reason Bolton has been at the centre of this latest Covid spike - not for the first time since the pandemic began - is because of a large number of people who work in manufacturing industries and cannot work from home, Dr Lowey explained. There are also lots of people living in multi-generational homes, with different members of the same families all under one roof. And, the pandemic has highlighted the inequalities in society which have allowed coronavirus space to spread, Bolton's Public Health Director said. "It's really about the inequalities that we have here in Bolton, acknowledging them but then again asking 'what's our response and how do we work together to reduce inequalities and improve outcomes for people'," she said. "It's go to be seen in the long term. It's that short term immediate response to really get the rates down but it's also the longer term. "What can we do across Bolton, across all our partners and the community?" (Image: ABNM Photography)  But, for those at the centre of Bolton's fightback, many of whom have been battling to get Covid under control in some form or another for 16 months, the success of the testing and vaccination campaigns have been a huge boost after an extremely tough period. "It's been an absolute buzz, it's probably one of my highlights of 18 years being a councillor - the way the town has come together and the way the system has come together for the benefit of people," Coun Morgan said. "It has been incredibly frustrating but we've kept our eye on the goal and the focus, we all do it for the right reasons, we know where we want to be, and we've kept at it. "Some of our officers have worked 24/7 for the last five weeks - even for the last 16 months basically. "We thought we were coming out of it and then we got hit with another variant, we go to the top of the pile again with all the national profile that gives - not necessarily good - but now we're coming to the point where people are saying, 'Let's look what Bolton's done, they've done a good job there'. "So it has been a bit a bumpy ride but as long as we can hold our heads up high and be proud of what we're doing that's good."