Health experts raise concern as Covid cases rise in Liverpool
The latest figures show cases have gone up by more than a third in a week
Last updated 16th Mar 2022
With Covid cases on the rise across Liverpool, public health experts are warning about the impact it could have on the economy.
In the seven days up to Friday the number of people testing positive here rose by more than a third to 2,598 - an increase of 1,022 cases on the previous week.
But despite a rise in infections across the country, the Government plans to remove the remaining international travel restrictions for all passengers from Friday.
Graeme Mitchell is a senior public health lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University:
"Lots of people will start to get ill at the same time. Just imagine a third of all train drivers for Merseyrail being off at the same time, a third of all support staff for schools being off at the same time.
"The impact it would have on the economy, taking a week off work, but not necessarily going into hospital will have a significant impact.
"When restrictions came off on the 24th February we had about 38,000 cases nationally but what we are seeing now is around about 77,000 a day, so Covid is still with us. The concern is the cases are rising significantly".