Coronavirus (COVID-19): Outbreak Management Planning

Aims of the Outbreak Management Plan, what we’ll focus on and answers to common questions.

As we’re moving towards recovering from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, local authorities are required to have a COVID-19 management plan for controlling and preventing the spread of the virus.

Our Outbreak Management Plan outlines measures to:

• identify and contain local outbreaks
• protect the public’s health

The council’s Director of Public Health has been responsible for defining these measures and producing the plan.

Aims of the plan

The aims of the plan is to:

• prevent the spread of COVID-19
• reduce the rate of infection
• respond rapidly to any rises in infection so that they can be contained quickly and safely

We’ll achieve this by:

• using good local knowledge to understand what's happening
• gathering and analysing data to see trends
• recognising and responding to triggers so that we can respond quickly and effectively to local situations and outbreaks
• testing and tracing and working with our partners

Our local Outbreak Management Plan focusses on seven themes:

1. Care homes and schools: planning for local outbreaks in care homes and schools
2. High risk contexts , workplaces and communities: identifying and planning how to manage other high-risk places, locations and communities of interest 
3. Vulnerable people: supporting vulnerable local people to get help to self-isolate 
4. Testing: overseeing of local testing. 
5. Contact tracing: assessing local and regional contact tracing and infection control in complex settings 
6. National, regional and local intelligence: identifying and responding quickly to outbreaks 
7. Engagement, communication and governance: establishing a COVID-19 health protection committee and local boards

The plan for Bristol is part of a network of plans in every local authority in England. It will be regularly reviewed as events continue to evolve and develop.

Plan and appendices

• Plan summary (pdf, 189KB) (opens new window)
• Bristol Local Outbreak Management Plan (pdf, 469KB) (opens new window)
• Appendix 1: Bristol Health Protection Commiteee  Terms of Reference (pdf, 82KB) (opens new window)
• Appendix 2: Bristol  Local Engagement Board Terms of Reference (pdf, 85KB) (opens new window)
• Appendix 3: Bristol Outbreak Planning Framework Snap Shot (pdf, 241KB) (opens new window)
• Appendix 4: Bristol Outbreak Planning Template (pdf, 215KB) (opens new window)
• Appendix 5: Schools - How to contact PHE Poster (pdf, 540KB) (opens new window)

Local Engagement Board meetings

These are fortnightly advisory board meetings chaired by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. The meetings provide:

• oversight and direction for the city wide COVID-19 communications
• engagement to support for local management

Local Engagement Board meeting minutes

• Minutes: 16 October 2020 (pdf, 118KB) (opens new window)
• Minutes: 2 October 2020 (pdf, 67KB) (opens new window)
• Minutes: 18 September 2020 (pdf, 91KB) (opens new window)
• Minutes: 4 September 2020 (pdf, 69KB) (opens new window)

COVID-19 bi-weekly Bristol statistics update

COVID-19 bi-weekly Bristol statistics update include: 

• overview of the latest COVID-19 data for Bristol
• overall assessment of the current situation in Bristol
• R number for the South West

We aim to publish this twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday afternoons on the COVID-19 data: including cases in Bristol and R number for the South West page.

Additional information 

• Letter to Care Homes re. visits, from Christina Gray Director of Public Health: 31 July 2020 (pdf, 223KB) (opens new window)

Common questions

• Local Outbreak Management Plan common questions (pdf, 184KB) (opens new window)