The IWC cabinet member responsible for Community Safety and Public Protection, Gary Peace, took part in a “Linkedin local” business networking meeting online yesterday with more than 50 others.
Cllr Peace was reported by others in the meeting as saying that in the last week there had been just one new Covid-19 case, and that it was a student on the mainland who hadn’t updated their address. Cllr Peace did not counter this when News OnTheWight put it to him after the meeting.
Discrepancy with the figures
The comments Cllr Peace made led to a great deal of confusion for some of those attending the online meeting.
Having followed the weekly updates reported by News OnTheWight they knew that based on data from Public Health England (PHE) from Tuesday 28th September to Monday 5th October the number of positive Covid-19 tests on the Island had increased by 18.
In addition to that, since those figures were released on Tuesday lunchtime, another 16 positive test results have been added to the cumulative total taking it to 492.
That’s quite a difference to Cllr’s Peace’s stated single case.
Peace: “No idea”
When Cllr Peace was challenged why his numbers differed from those published (in the online chat box by those attending the meeting) he replied,
“No idea? My figures come direct from PHE. The important thing to note is that we are one of the lowest in the country.”
Lack of concern “about the huge discrepancy”
One businessman on the Zoom call, who asked to remain anonymous, told News OnTheWight afterwards,
“It’s very worrying that a) his figures differ and b) he does not seem concerned about the huge discrepancy.”
Peace: “The figures I quoted were historic”
News OnTheWight got in touch with Cllr Peace to ask about what he’d said. He told us,
“The figures I quoted were historic. I did state that at the time.”
We went back and asked him which period he was referring to, as it’s been some time since there was just one positive test in a week. He replied this morning saying,
“Please bear with me. I’m trying to get some more information for you.”
Given that we’re asking Cllr Peace specifically about what he’d said in the online meeting, we’re not sure what other information he’s trying to seek, but we’ll update once we hear back from him.
Has a university student been included?
In yesterday’s Local Outbreak Board meeting, it was confirmed that if a University student from the Island had a test in the town or city they were now living in, but had not yet unregistered from their GP from the Island, their positive test result could be added to the Island’s total.
Simon Bryant, the Director for Public Health on the Island, said ‘technically’ this could happen, but didn’t actually say that it had. He also told those at the meeting that it would be very small number and they look at those on an individual basis.
Silence from Peace
We asked Cllr Peace how he knew the figures included a University student – as it wasn’t stated as such in the Board meeting – but he has twice avoided answering that question.
We asked Mr Bryant about this yesterday and a council spokesperson replied this morning,
“Due to the way testing results are processed in the data it is possible that a student from the Isle of Wight, living and testing off Island would be part of the Island’s figures.
“However, as this concerns patient information, we are unable to comment further.”
“No comment”
We were not asking for personal information about the patient, simply whether it was accurate to say the stats for the last week included a Uni student now not living here.
A council spokesperson told News OnTheWight,
“Sorry Sally, we can’t comment any further on this.”
Image: treborrenrut under CC BY 2.0
