Are you behind the mask or against it?

After the Government has so far ruled out the return of mandatory face masks, reporter Kit Roberts visited Newcastle to find out Whether you’ve ditched yours

SPECULATION is mounting about a return to mandatory face masks and household bubbles this Christmas amid warnings daily covid cases could top 100,000 during winter.

The Government is so far refusing to implement its coronavirus ‘Plan B’. It includes mandatory face coverings in some settings and a return to working from home.

But Health Secretary Sajid Javid has urged people to get their Covid-19 vaccines and covid booster jabs and wear masks in crowded places – or risk the coronavirus restrictions returning.

It comes as large swathes of North Staffordshire remain in the top 50 league of shame for the highest coronavirus rates in the UK.

And there is a warning that covid cases remain ‘too high’ in Stoke-on-trent as the virus continues to decimate the city’s workforce and schools.

It has come from Stoke-ontrent’s public health director Paul Edmondson-jones as it is estimated that 7,000 working and school days are being lost in the city every week.

But it has also emerged in the latest Public Health England data reveals that the city’s seven-day coronavirus infection rate is gradually falling.

It currently stands at 521 per 100,000 people after 1,337 cases were recorded in the past week. The total number of coronavirus cases in the city since the start of the pandemic stands at 37,937.

Mr Edmondsonjones said: “Cases are too high. There are 7,000 lost working or school days every week in the city.”

The latest data shows cases are continuing to rocket in the Staffordshire Moorlands which now has a sevenday infection rate of 752.8 per 100,000 people - one of the highest in the country. The county of Staffordshire has an infection rate of

590.3 after recording 5,213 cases in the past week.

And Newcastle borough has a Covid infection rate of 609.5. It is 495.4 in Stafford borough.

The Health Secretary said:

“If not enough people get their booster jabs, if not enough of those people that were eligible for the original offer, the five million I’ve talked about that remain unvaccinated, if they don’t come forward, if people don’t wear masks when they really should in a really crowded place with lots of people that they don’t normally hang out with, if they’re not washing their hands and stuff, it’s going to hit us all. And it would of course make it more likely we’re going to have more restrictions. Now we want to avoid those.”

In Newcastle, shoppers were divided over the need for a face covering. Retired Helen Theobold has not ditched her face mask.

The 70-year-old, from Newcastle, left, said: “I think people need to take personal responsibility.

“I’ve had both vaccines but I feel we should be still wearing a mask.

“When I put it on I leave it on. Not outside, but I do think in crowded places or where you

are very closed in.”

But unemployed Luke Roberts, left, has ditched his mask.

The 33-year-old, from Hartshill, said: “I think we need to be careful about mandating such a thing. While I understand the risk of contraction, now there are vaccines that risk has diminished. “Wearing masks, to mandate it, is an invasive infringement.

“There’s a risk in depersonalising the public. Faces are important. I go to the hospital and I wear a mask when I go.

“It’s strange, it’s a strange thing to have masked people sticking things in your body and taking blood out of you.”

Retired Rosemary Lewis, aged 69, from Newcastle, said: “I think other people feel safer around you if you wear a mask. It’s not going to do any harm to wear them. If you sneeze with a mask on it’s got to be better for other people. I don’t think the Government should have relaxed the rules. There’s a big difference in asking and telling.”

Annette Stubbs, aged 74, from Newcastle, said: “I think we should be wearing them in shops – but not outdoors.

“Wear your mask, think of other people, and just keep your distance. That’s it isn’t it?”

Social care worker Helen Stubbs, aged 46, from Newcastle, said: “I don’t think people should have to wear masks anymore.

“I think as long as you’re doing tests, just checking, and if you have got any symptoms you stay in. I don’t think a face mask stops you from catching covid.”

Mavis Prendergast, aged 84, added: “I can’t see that the masks are any good. If you kept your distance it would be much better.”