THE number of East Lothian Council employees unable to work because of the coronavirus pandemic has reached its highest figure.

Covid-19 restrictions have been eased across the country in recent months but services throughout East Lothian continue to be stretched.

Councillor Norman Hampshire, depute leader of the local authority, stressed that the delivery of public services continued to be far from normal.

He said: “We are, of course, pleased that the easing of restrictions has enabled people to see more of each other and enable businesses and services to open up.

“But I want to be very clear that life has still not returned to pre-pandemic ‘normal’.

“The success of the vaccination programme is limiting the harm being caused but infection levels remain too high – people continue to catch and pass on the virus. And people can still become unwell.

“When people are sick, they still need to self-isolate – as do those who are identified as close contacts.

“While this is the right course of action, the implications are causing huge staffing pressures within the council right now.

“This is being felt in departments across the council – including facilities management, which has responsibilities for the cleaning of public buildings and cleaning, catering and janitorial support in schools.

“Education and children’s services, health and social care and customer services teams are other areas under real strain – but these are just a few examples.

“We are also having to take decisions to adjust opening hours of facilities and sometimes at short notice.”

Lockdown restrictions meant widespread changes to how people were working, including those at East Lothian Council.

Many members of staff were and still are working from home, with others helping to cover other stretched departments.

A spokesman for the local authority, which employs just under 4,500 people, told the Courier that, as of September 13, there were 278 employees unable to work – nearly a quarter for Covid-related reasons.

He said: “The number of employees unable to work for Covid-related reasons is higher now than at any other point during the pandemic.

“Whilst the vast majority of employees are able to work, it is important to note that even a small number of absences in specific departments can have a significant impact on the service being provided to the public.

“Covid-related absences are not spread evenly across the council and some areas have higher concentrations of absences than others.

“It remains a dynamic, unpredictable situation, with the overall number of positive cases of Covid-19 still being high, and this is reflected in the challenges being faced by the council at present.”

Mr Hampshire added: “Council employees have carried out heroic work throughout the pandemic, including doing things differently or covering other duties, and we are extremely grateful.

“And I know the communities of East Lothian are supportive and appreciative of these incredible efforts, at a time when our business continuity plans remain invoked.

“Unfortunately, we have not returned to ‘normality’ and, if these challenges persist, we may need to take difficult decisions to temporarily scale down some non-statutory services or the way in which buildings are used, in order to focus on priority activities in a pandemic and maintain our duty of care to employees.

“Whilst this would, of course, be a last resort, we need to be upfront about the scale of the current difficulties being faced across the public sector – from healthcare to local authorities.

“Our focus must continue to be on maintaining critical services whilst balancing the ongoing requirements of support to test and protect and self-isolation.

“We are grateful to the public for their patience and kindness towards our staff, who are trying their best despite the difficulties.

“The road to recovery will be long and hard but East Lothian Council, working with our partners, continues to strive to provide the best possible services while supporting efforts to reduce case numbers.”