More tourism (and more Covid) expected in Cornwall and South West
Public Health England say we should expect a rise in visitors and the virus after Covid restrictions are eased on Monday
Health bosses in the South West say we should expect a rise in both cases of coronavirus and tourism across Cornwall and the region, once all Covid restrictions are eased on Monday (19th July).
We've spoken to regional officials from Public Health England (PHE) ahead of so called "Freedom Day".
During a briefing with the media we heard between 1,000 and 2,000 people in the region are currently testing positive every day, which is similar to the previous peak seen in January.
However, the number of people in hospital is still low at around 100 with most of those testing positive young people, while the regional infection rate is still below the national average.
Dominic Mellon, PHE's Deputy Director of Public Protection in the South West, was asked if we can expect those numbers to rise.
"We know from research undertaken previously that when polled about where people would like to spend an overnight stay in the UK, the South West comes out on top consistently," he said.
"We can expect that when we move into Step 4, as we saw with Step 3, that there's going to be an increase in mobility.
"We're going to see more and more people potentially moving around within the South West but also choosing to visit here.
"We should expect that and in many ways be thankful for it as well."
He added however, that they are monitoring how that kind of behaviour impacts infections.
"We are for example seeing some increase in the proportion of cases that say they have been to a hospitality venue or a leisure venue before becoming a case, so during their incubation periods.
"But we're seeing that across the board, we're seeing that in workplaces, we're seeing it in other settings as well.
"So despite the fact that it (the South West) is an attractive location for many people to be travelling to, by following the simple steps that we've already talked about there are ways that we can protect each other.
"I think it's really important that as we're thinking of opening up, we celebrate the fact that the South West is a brilliant place to come to."
Pressed on how exactly infections could rise, Mike Wade, PHE's Deputy Regional Director said this:
"I think our Secretary of State for Health suggested that in England we could see 100,000 (daily) cases in a couple of week's time.
"So that's almost a tripling of what we're seeing today.
"We're going to estimate an increase in this rate going up.
"How high it gets before it plateau's is going to be subject to a lot of different factors, but would we be surprised to see up to 10,000 (daily cases) in the South West?
"I think that is possibly a sensible estimate."
It was suggested we could reach that peak around mid August.