Harrogate district 'hanging by a thread' between Tier 1 and Tier 2 in Covid battle

Revealed: Covid costs £3.7million in lost sales to Harrogate Theatre

And care home cases are also becoming a concern in the Harrogate district with three separate outbreaks recently.

Although the numbers with Covid in the county’s main hospitals in York, Harrogate and Scarborough are not at the level seen at the peak of the pandemic earlier this year - 118 patients now versus 300 then - concern is growing over whether more interventions to control the virus may be required here, too.

Infection rates in North Yorkshire for the seven days up to October 24 remain lower overall at 170.2 per 100,000 people than the average rate in England of 219.5.

But the two highest areas in the county are raising concerns - Selby at 229.5 and Harrogate district at 203.3 - meaning there is no reason for complacency despite a huge amount of effort by all the agencies working with or for North Yorkshire.

Speaking at this week’s North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum meeting, Richard Webb, North Yorkshire County Council’s corporate director of health and adult services, said: “We are still in a very grave situation. We are hanging by a thread between Tier 1 and Tier 2.

"It would be better if we stayed at level one but we are worried about the trends."

Amid worries that the Harrogate district and North Yorkshire were surrounded by local authorities in higher tiers of lockdown, Dr Lincoln Sargeant said that fact alone did not make a change inevitable and there were no signs that a change was likely here.

Dr Sargeant, the county’s director of public health, said: "There are clearly strong connections with West Yorkshire and Leeds in terms of people who travel to work there.

"But the decision to move parts of North Yorkshire or the county as a whole into higher tiers is for the Secretary of State for Health to make.

"Our role is to feed in views on Covid from the different sectors in the county into the Government but sometimes we don't know until the final decisions are made."

At the moment, Selby is the only district in North Yorkshire whose infection rates are above the current average in England.

Harrogate district is below it at 203.3, Hambleton is next highest at 176.9, followed by Craven 162.8, Richmondshire 160.1, Scarborough 123.2 and, lastly, Ryedale 75.8.

Dr Lincoln Sargeant said: “The rate of rise here is beginning to fall with a lot of good work being done by everyone in North Yorkshire.

"But we can't confidently say we have peaked yet. The numbers of new infections in the younger age groups in the county is now falling but the numbers of people over 60-years-old is now rising.

"We are still not seeing a great deal of transmission in the hospitality sector or offices, though we are seeing for the first time clusters of cases among staff in offices with more people needing to self-isolate.

"But this seems to be the result of household transmissions and it is still not a huge trend."

In terms of how Harrogate Hospital is coping with Covid, the latest figures show there are nine patients with Covid in general beds and three in intensive care.

Amanda Bloor, accountable officer for North Yorkshire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "The number of hospital patients is continuing to rise but the levels are not at the level seen during lockdown earlier in the year.

"The county's hospitals are still coping well with demand but there are concerns this may be affected by winter time, which is why the positive take-up of the flu vaccine is so important."

Concern is now growing over the virus in care homes in North Yorkshire.

Dr Lincoln Sargeant, confirmed there was increasing concern. He said: “The number of older people now being infected is rising and this is also being reflected in care homes.”

Corporate director of health Richard Webb said, so far, they had kept the numbers "relatively tight" in the care home sector but there had been challenges over the last week in the battle to protect residents.

There had been hopes of rescinding the temporary ban on all but essential visits to care homes which was imposed by North Yorkshire County Council last month.

But that decision to be announced tomorrow, Friday now depended on whether the county as a whole, or even parts of it, stayed in Tier 1 of the Government's Covid restrictions or was moved into Tier 2.

Richard Webb, who revealed there had been three large outbreaks recently in care homes in North Yorkshire, said: "Our colleagues and staff in the care home sector have been making incredible efforts to protect residents but there has been a change in the last week, which is of concern.

"In terms of visits, we need to get the balance right between protecting people in care homes and allowing access to them. But we hope to find a sensible way forward," he said.

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