Should all of Derbyshire really be in Tier 4?

ALL areas of Derbyshire were put into highest coronavirus Tier 4 restrictions by the Government on Wednesday, yet many areas of the county have some of the lowest infection rates in the country.

People living in the Derbyshire Dales may well feel aggrieved their non-essential shops, hairdressers, gyms and pubs are closed. While in some of the suburbs of Derby and in the Heanor and Ripley areas where infection rates are well above average, there could be some justification for the tougher rules.

The infection rate measures how many people per 100,000 have contracted coronavirus. The most recently released data covers the seven-day period to Christmas Day.

Bolsover North recorded just three positive cases of coronavirus and it was a similar story in Bakewell South, including Taddington and Youlgrave and also Allestree South.

There were four cases recorded in the same period in the Borowash and Ockbrook area of Erewash, seven cases in Matlock, seven in Clay Cross and eight in Ashbourne South, Breadsall, Little Eaton and Stanley Common and Allestree North.

All of these figures were well below the national average of 275 cases per 100,000.

At the other end of the scale, Rose Hill in Derby recorded 48 positive cases, Littleover 34, Normanton West and Chellaston 25, boosting Derby’s overall cases to 249.5 per 100,000 population and a weekly rise of 817 new cases.

Amber Valley is currently the county’s Covid hotspot with 323.8 cases per 100,000 compared to Derbyshire Dales with 149.3 and High Peak with 138 per 100,000 people. Within Amber Valley, the growth rate of infection is being fuelled by Heanor, which saw 47 positive cases in the week up to December 25, Swanwick and Leabrooks with 45 and Kilburn 38 cases.

Instead of subdividing counties into different tier restrictions, the Government has changed all the areas en masse within them since Tier 3 was introduced in early December.

In the current Tier 4, people are not allowed to leave home at all without a ‘reasonable excuse’. This can include going to work, heading to the shop to buy food or medicine, and taking children to school.

Figures for other areas are as follows: Chesterfield, 153 cases per 100,000 people; North East Derbyshire, 185 cases per 100,000 people; Bolsover, 207 cases per 100,000 people; Erewash, 167 cases per 100,000 people; South Derbyshire, 256 cases per 100,000 people.