Coronavirus Cases Increase in North East.
Coronavirus infection rates have increased in five out of seven North East areas, new figures show. Gateshead, Sunderland, Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland have all recorded a jump in cases in the seven days up to October 26.
Coronavirus cases have increased in five North East areas, the latest figures have revealed.
Gateshead, Sunderland, Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland have all recorded a jump in cases in the seven days up to October 26.
In the seven North East local authority areas, Gateshead currently has the highest rate of infection, with an extra 776 recorded cases compared to the week before.
Infection rates have fallen in South Tyneside and County Durham, but increased in North Tyneside, and although Northumberland has the lowest infection rate in the North East, it has also increased slightly.
Newcastle and Sunderland each saw more than 900 new cases over the seven day period. The whole of the North East remains in Tier 2 restrictions, which mean that households cannot mix indoors in order to prevent the further spread of the virus.
Nationally, while the North West and Yorkshire remain the worst-hit areas, the Midlands is fast emerging as the next area of major concern.
It comes as official papers today reveal the coronavirus second wave is now almost certainly worse than the Government’s “worst-case scenario”.
SAGE experts are convinced that a new national lockdown is the only chance of “saving Christmas”, believing it is now inevitable that the whole country will end up in some form of lockdown if we are to prevent more than 500 Covid deaths a day over winter.
But scientists warn the current expansion of Tier 3 will still not be enough to combat the virus.
Tory ministers are refusing calls to impose a full-blown national lockdown like in France but have not ruled out a new, even stricter Tier 4 .
And while the UK coronavirus R rate has dropped for a second week, it is still as high as 1.5 in some areas.
The latest stats show the rolling seven-day rate per 100,000 people of new cases for the seven days to October 26.
The figures are based on tests carried out in laboratories – pillar one of the Government’s testing programme – and in the wider community – pillar two.
Data for the most recent four days, October 27 to 30, has been excluded as it is incomplete and does not reflect the true number of cases.
The list is based on Public Health England data published on October 30 on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard.