Coronavirus cases in Scarborough top 2,000
There have now been 2,051 infections since the start of the pandemic.
Scarborough’s Covid-19 infection rate has now passed 500 as local leaders have warned that without action the borough could find itself under the toughest level of restrictions when lockdown ends.
The borough recorded a further 88 confirmed coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the overall number since the start of the pandemic to 2,051.
Scarborough’s infection rate, which last month was the lowest in North Yorkshire at 92, now stands at 512 cases per 100,000 population on a seven-day average. The infection rate has also now doubled compared to last week.
At a meeting of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum yesterday, health and local authority leaders said that the rise was down to households mixing in breach of the current restrictions.
North Yorkshire County Council’s corporate director for health and adult services, Richard Webb, said:
“Our work in Scarborough has been a major focus this week. We have for some time now since the outbreaks in Whitby been working very intensively with local communities to prevent and contain the spread of the virus.
“We were successful in Whitby some weeks ago but that is now more difficult in terms of the rapid spread we have been seeing both in the Staithes and Hinderwell area, in the Filey area and Scarborough town.
“We have agreed to intensify our action. We are going to be doing much more awareness-raising.
“We are beginning to see that where people are flouting the lockdown it has direct consequences for our care homes, our hospital in Scarborough and also means the virus is spreading from town to village right along the coast.
“For those that said it couldn’t happen here – it has.”
Mr Webb said that there was now “real concern” that the borough could be placed into one of the higher Tiers when lockdown ends on December 2. That could mean that pubs and other hospitality businesses would have to remain closed and household mixing would be restricted.
His concerns were echoed by Scarborough Council chief executive, Mike Greene.
Mr Greene added:
“It is obviously very worrying with the figures in Scarborough and it is absolutely crucial that we get our numbers down.
“The last thing anybody is the borough of Scarborough wants is for us to continue into more restrictive lockdowns, when the national lockdown is lifted.
“We need everybody to follow the rules which are really simple.”
As of Tuesday this week there were 49 covid patients at Scarborough Hospital – an increase of 17 from last week.
Scarborough’s new walk-in testing site, at the William Street Coach Park, has seen around 100 people a day since it opened last week.
Tests can be booked at https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test.