Highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on Warwickshire residents

March 23 marked the one-year anniversary since the first national lockdown and was also the launch date for the Warwickshire County Council Director of Public Health’s annual report.  

This year the report focuses on Warwickshire residents and their experiences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to understand how it has impacted on their health along with other challenges they have faced and where they have found support.  

The current pandemic has affected everybody’s health and wellbeing. It has shone a light on the health inequalities which already existed in Warwickshire - for example, life expectancy is 8.2 years lower for men and 5.7 years lower for women in the most deprived areas of Warwickshire than in the least deprived areas.   

This year’s report uses a case study approach to share residents' experiences of testing positive with COVID-19 and living through lockdown. The report is a vital tool to raise awareness of the impact of the pandemic in our communities, highlighting what we must put in place to support everyone to recover from the pandemic, improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. The full report is available at warwickshire.gov.uk/publichealthannualreport 

To accompany the report, COVID-19 Stories is an online gallery that shares additional stories from Warwickshire residents about their experiences through the pandemic. Photographs from across the county have been captured to illustrate the case studies. To view the gallery visit https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/covid19stories  

An online dashboard called ‘Monitoring Health Inequalities’ is published alongside the report and considers health data over time at various geographies. The data relates to a range of themes covered in the report, including the wider determinants of health and inequalities and will continue to be added to as more data is made available. To view the dashboard visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/publichealthannualreport