Staff at East Yorkshire pubs abused over Covid rules

People were allowed back into indoor venues on 17 May

Staff at some East Yorkshire hospitality venues have been abused while enforcing coronavirus rules, the county's health boss has said.

East Riding Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said he had been told of the "unfortunate" incidents over the bank holiday weekend.

Lockdown restrictions were eased last month, meaning six people or two households can meet indoors.

Mr Kingdom said he was concerned about "big house parties" in the area.

People's behaviour was changing, he said, but that "could put things in a dangerous position".

"It will get through families quicker, you have several people from different households meeting up then going home and potentially taking the virus back with them."

East Riding Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said his team was monitoring the effects of indoor mixing

Mr Kingdom said: "We also saw over the bank holiday weekend that staff in a minority of venues did face abuse, that was unfortunate.

"People's behaviour twists in some circumstances, I think for some people they've had control over their lives taken away and they want it back all at once."

Mr Kingdom told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it would soon be apparent if greater household mixing had any effect on Covid infections.

He said that infection rates had dropped in the county, but health officials were monitoring the arrival of the so-called Indian variant, now known as Delta.

He said the variant was about 20-30% of cases in East Riding, but would probably become dominant in the next few weeks because it was "catchier and spreads more easily".

"It has caused some outbreaks here but so far we've managed to control them," he said.