Covid: East Riding of Yorkshire Council's plea for help

Council leader Richard Burton said it was a "serious situation"

The leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council has asked the government for "urgent" further help tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

Richard Burton said the district was in a "serious" situation and more staff and resources were needed for its public health team.

The county is among the top 40 areas in England for coronavirus infection rates per 100,000 people.

The government said more than £2m had been given to the council.

In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Mr Burton asked for help to handle the lockdown and to roll out new lateral flow tests, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

He said its "small" public health team and the county having one of the lowest funding amounts per head at £32.88 was increasing pressure during the current lockdown.

"This is a crisis and we need some help from government, other areas that have lower infections rates than us have got further support," he said.

His letter followed a similar one from council bosses in Hull asking the prime minister asking for help.

Mr Burton said while Hull was at the "centre" of the crisis in East Yorkshire and the Humber, his area also needed extra support because of how much the two were interlinked.

"We need to make sure the government takes that into account given our infection rates," he said.

"We have East Riding residents who travel to Hull for work and vice versa."

Mr Burton said it was likely the county would be in tier three after lockdown.

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The Department of Health and Social Care said it was providing East Riding of Yorkshire with some of the 600,000 lateral flow tests as part of a national expansion in testing.

The spokesperson added: "This is on top of mobile testing units, existing walk-through and regional testing sites, and over £2 million which we have provided to the East Riding of Yorkshire council to support national restrictions."

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