North Yorkshire 'needs more clarity on how it could escape potential Tier 2 coronavirus restrictions'

Dr Lincoln Sargeant told a press conference that the number of cases in North Yorkshire was still below the national average and the speed at which infections are increasing appeared to be slowing down, further interventions may still be necessary.

Neighbouring areas including the City of York, Tees Valley and West Yorkshire are already in Tier 2, meaning household mixing is banned indoors, and South Yorkshire in Tier 3 from Saturday.

And Dr Sargeant said this meant that North Yorkshire, which is still in Tier 1 alongside Hull and the East Riding, might be "part of discussions" with the Government about further restrictions being imposed on a wider regional or sub-regional level.

He said a concern was "the lack of clarity in terms of what are the criteria and process for areas that are in higher tiers of interventions to move down".

He added: "So, if and when North Yorkshire were to move into Tier 2, it would be important for us to understand what would be the benchmarks, what would be the indicators that would signal that we have been successful with various measures and that we can then step back down say into Tier 1 restrictions and clearly there have been some areas that have been on the interventions for quite a long periods of time.

"And I think the public would want clarity, which would also be motivating because if you know that there is something to aim for and if you achieve that, then the restrictions can be lifted. I think that's more motivating for the public to get behind restrictions, if and when they are introduced."

Dr Sargeant said North Yorkshire's seven day infection rate was 129.8 per 100,000 people, below the England average of 158.9.

Selby's rate of 165.5 was the highest followed by Harrogate at 161, Craven at 126, Hambleton at 124.5, Ryedale at 101.1, Scarborough at 93.8 and Richmondshire at 91.2.

The number of education settings which have seen Covid cases has risen from 54 to 94 in the last two weeks, though this is still a small proportion of the more than 1,000 county-wide, while the number of cases in education settings has risen from 135 to 311.

Dr Sargeant said the approach that had so far been taken in North Yorkshire, of concentrating resources on protecting the vulnerable in care homes and places like pubs where infections could spread, had seen "considerable success".

But he said: "The momentum means that if we continue in this way, those approaches will not continue to be effective, and we won't regain control of the pandemic locally.

"So it's in that context that we need to be thinking, what further interventions might be necessary that allow us to continue to keep infections out of care homes and infecting vulnerable people."

He said decisive, early action would be needed so numbers come down enough for track and trace to become more effective, while balancing the economic impact on North Yorkshire's hospitality sector.