PEOPLE visiting reopened Cheshire West and Chester Council libraries and other communities buildings will need to provide their contact details as part of essential coronavirus safeguarding.

The council is appealing for residents to play their part in the new factfinding activity which will help protect lives and protect livelihoods from the threat of Covid-19.

As the council's public buildings reopen this month, such as Chester's Grosvenor Museum, every visitor will be asked for their contact details on entry to each community building. Information is kept securely and destroyed after 21 days.

Collecting residents’ contact details is now an important activity, which will protect the community from the spread of the virus.

The council will need to be able to pass people’s contact details onto the NHS Test and Trace Service if they ask for them, or the council may need to contact people if there’s a positive test result linked to the building.

Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council Louise Gittins said: “We are monitoring data every day in order to identify if there are any signs of local outbreaks across our borough.

“With public buildings opening across west Cheshire, there may be the unfortunate circumstance that we have a local outbreak which involves a public building. In the event of this happening, the council would manage the outbreak as it would with every location in the borough.

“We may be asked to pass the contact details of people who have visited public buildings to the NHS Test and Trace Service so they can get in touch with them, as they may have been near an infected person. Help us to do this by sharing your contact details and play your part to protect the community.”

Ian Ashworth, director of Public Health for Cheshire West and Chester, said: “It is important for us to gather this information. It will help us pass information to the NHS Test and Trace Service so it can track down the virus in the event of an outbreak.

"We must protect lives and protect livelihoods and you can play your part to help us do that.”

Every council has published how they will prevent and manage local outbreaks if they occur and its Outbreak Prevention, Management and Support Plan and can be viewed on the council's website.

The plan explains that the council is working with local organisations and settings to ensure they are ‘Covid-secure’, are supporting and protecting their communities and contact tracing if there is a local outbreak.

  • Protect yourself and your family and friends by getting a coronavirus test if you have symptoms of a persistent cough, fever or loss of taste and smell by calling 119 or visiting nhs.uk/coronavirus. Protect your community by then self-isolating for 14 days if you have symptoms or if alerted to do so by a contact tracer.