Police crackdown as seven more die

DEVON and Cornwall’s Chief Constable has warned people who break lockdown restrictions will “end up in a police cell”.

Shaun Sawyer has called on the public to stick to the rules after it was revealed that during the first week of the latest lockdown, between January 4 and January 10, Devon and Cornwall Police received 921 Covid19 related calls – with almost half of these coming from Cornwall.

Yesterday officers revealed surfers in a campervan travelled from London to North Devon to catch some waves, in clear contravention of the lockdown laws.

Furious police chiefs say the incident “beggars belief ” and issued fines and sent the surfers back to London.

Mr Sawyer warned that anyone else that plans on making similar trips this weekend could end up behind bars. He said: “I am expecting too many people to get Covid-19 and die if we carry on. That is what I am expecting so let’s not make that happen.”

He praised the majority in Devon and Cornwall who were sticking to the rules but condemned what he said were “the few” breaching them.

“My plea to the public is don’t be that person who refuses to comply and puts yourself and others at unnecessary risk,” Mr Sawyer said.

The latest figures show seven more people in Devon and Cornwall have died in hospital from Covid-19, six in Truro and one in Exeter.

Meanwhile Torbay has seen the fastest rise in the number of cases in the region with Dr Caroline Dimond, director of public health for Torbay saying measures needed to be taken quickly to slow the spread.

SEVEN more people have died from coronavirus in hospitals in Devon and Cornwall, figures out yesterday show.

One death was recorded at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital on Wednesday, January 13, taking the total who have died there to 191.

And a further six patients died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro taking the total lives lost to Covid19 at that hospital to 100.

There were no other hospital deaths reported in the Westcountry on Friday, but nationally a further 807 coronavirus deaths were recorded on Friday, according to NHS England.

The latest data comes as health bosses warn that Torbay has the steepest percentage rise in new cases of Covid-19 in Devon and the new variant of the virus has been detected.

The area was the best-performing local authority in England at the start of the year and numbers are still lower than in most other parts of the country.

Last week Torbay had 355 cases per 100,000 in the seven days to January 10 (up from 188 the previous week) a rise of 88.8 per cent. The figure is even higher in the 20 to 40 age group.

Dr Caroline Dimond, director of public health for Torbay, said the region has had cases of the new variant and action needs to be taken quickly to lower the numbers.

Meanwhile the roll-out of the vaccination programme continues across the South West, which has seen some of the best rates of vaccine delivery of any part of the country.

A husband and wife who have been shielding for nearly a year had one of their first outings in Cornwall to receive their Covid vaccine.

Kerwin and Ann Harris, aged 85 and 80, from Chacewater, received their vaccine at the Mount Hawke Surgery. The surgery, which is part of the Coastal cluster primary care network (PCN) as well as Penwith PCN, delivered the vaccine to people most at risk as set out nationally for the priority groups last week.

Ann described it as “an exciting trip out”. She said while it was busy, the surgery had gone the extra mile to keep everyone safe and socially distanced, even drafting in a marquee and heaters to keep everyone warm and dry while they waited 15 minutes for observations once they had received the first dose.

Ann, who has been married to Kerwin for 58 years, said: “It was well organised and we were in and out of the surgery remarkably quickly. The injection didn’t hurt a bit and I felt fine afterwards.

“It was lovely that we could go through as a couple so we were there for each other. Overall, it was an exciting trip out for us, we were only sorry we didn’t bring a flask of tea.”

In Devon it has been an emotional first few days at the Torbay vaccination centre where many elderly people arriving for their jab hadn’t been outside since last March. The team from GP practices across Torbay who have set up the centre in the Riviera International Centre said they were overwhelmed by the thankful attitude of the first patients.

Elderly people brought gifts of chocolates and biscuits – some even offered money. All said the operation was running like “an incredible, well-oiled machine”.

Practice manager Nicci Hilson, one of the main organisers behind the collaborative team from all 10 Torbay GP surgeries who run the centre, said: “It was very emotional in the first few days – people were so desperate and so grateful when they arrived. There was nobody who works here who wasn’t moved to tears.”