Stark warning issued as covid cases rise in North East Lincolnshire

North East Lincolnshire Council’s Public Health team are warning that local residents must stick to coronavirus rules after a report showed a significant increase in positive COVID cases in the area over the last 7 days.

The report, which is published on a weekly basis, shows COVID-19 rates dropping across the borough in the last month, but that trend looks to have changed as the Delta variant, first identified in India, becomes the dominant strain in England.

The percentage of tests returning a positive result in North East Lincolnshire has risen from 0.4% to 2.2%.

Geoff Barnes, Deputy Director of Public Health in North East Lincolnshire, said:

“We’ve reached a fork in the road, and it’s up to people to make the right choices to ensure we keeping going on the road to recovery.

“As we start to see different variants take hold in England, the virus is passed more easily from person to person.

“Current evidence suggests that the vaccine is still effective against those variants we are currently seeing and we ask everyone to get their 1st and 2nd doses when offered as it is the best protection we have against the virus.

“However, not everyone has been vaccinated, and those who have had one or both doses of the vaccine can still transmit the virus.

“The best thing people can do is continue to take those key steps to reduce transmission – things like social distancing, wearing a mask in shops and enclosed public spaces, and washing your hands regularly, are all very effective in stopping the virus from moving between people.”