Covid: North East 'should act together' in virus fight

Newcastle, along with its six neighbouring council areas, is subject to tier three restrictions

Parts of north-east England with lower coronavirus infection rates should not be allowed to break away and exit tier three measures, Newcastle's public health chief has said.

Prof Eugene Milne called on the area's seven councils to "act together" to fight the virus everywhere.

He warned the virus was "not going to obey administrative boundaries".

His comments came after an MP lobbied for County Durham to move to tier two if cases there fall.

Durham, Newcastle, Gateshead, Northumberland, Sunderland and North and South Tyneside all adopted the same local measures in September in an effort to slow the spread of Covid-19.

They have all been under tier three restrictions since the end of England's national lockdown earlier this month.

Prof Milne said: "One of the things that was clear from the previous action that was taken in September collectively is that it was effective partly because it covered the natural distribution of people's movements.

"It covered commuter areas, it covered the way people move in and out of the city and around the area.

"That geographical coherence is quite important. From that point of view, it probably makes sense for us to act together rather than separately."

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On Thursday in the House of Commons, Richard Holden, Conservative MP for North West Durham, called on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to allow Durham "to go a separate way" and exit tier three if cases there dropped.

Moving to tier two - high alert - would allow restaurants, and pubs and bars offering a "substantial meal" to open, while groups of up to six people could socialise in private gardens.

South Tyneside had the highest infection rate of the seven council areas in the week from 7 December to 13 December, with 322 cases per 100,000 people.

Durham had 151 cases per 100,000 people, while Gateshead recorded the lowest rate with 105 per 100,000.