Too many people still meeting up, says health chief

A SENIOR health leader in South Yorkshire has urged residents to “go above and beyond” the current Tier 3 restrictions after warning that too many people were still meeting up.

Doncaster’s director of public health, Rupert Suckling, said the latest seven- day case rate of 530 per 100,000 people was “not good news”.

Doncaster, along with Rotherham, Sheffield and Barnsley, has been under Tier 3 restrictions since last Saturday and will be joined on Monday by West Yorkshire.

Dr Suckling said in a video message: “It’s clear to me that too many people in Doncaster are still meeting up and not following the guidance to keep our distance, to wear face coverings and to wash our hands.

“The infection is spreading very quickly and we will need to stop it. If we do not put the fire out now it will continue to flare up and continue burning.

“So I’m asking you all to go above and beyond the Tier 3 restrictions to help keep everyone in the borough safe.

“Please don’t travel unless it’s essential

and please stay within Doncaster if you possibly can.”

The Tier 3 restrictions, which one in five people in the UK will be living under from Monday, ban all household mixing – indoors and out – and force certain businesses, including pubs, to close.

Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis reached agreement with the Government over the plans this week and secured a £ 41m economic support package to accompany the measures. But Mr Jarvis said yesterday that the number of Covid- 19 patients in South Yorkshire hospitals is now nearly double the peak of the first wave of the virus.

He said: “Over recent weeks there has been a steady rise in the number of patients admitted to hospitals across South Yorkshire who have tested positive for Covid- 19. There are now 700 people in hospital with the virus, approaching double the peak of 414 during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring.”

Mr Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central, said planning for a second wave meant hospitals are “currently coping” but he added: “The situation remains precarious and if Covid cases continue to rise and hospitalisations increase, we risk our hospitals and the people who work in them being overwhelmed. “

Across England, hospitals have begun looking at whether they need to cancel non- urgent operations, with bosses in Leeds and Bradford already postponing some routine treatments.

An average of 230 deaths a day from Covid- 19 have been reported in theUKoverthepastsevendays, compared with 151 the previous week.