Coronavirus: York 'could become Covid area of concern'

The city's director of public health has urged residents to be vigilant

York's public health director has warned there is "every possibility" the city could be named as an area of concern on the coronavirus watchlist.

Sharon Stoltz, said there had been a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases recently.

She has urged people to remain vigilant in order to prevent further measures being imposed.

Her comments come after a video showed a large crowd gathering after leaving bars in the city on Saturday.

The video prompted concern as the crowd, of largely young people, ignored social distancing guidelines before being dispersed peacefully by the police.

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The city currently has a rate of 52.4 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days up to 23 September, Ms Stoltz told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"There's every possibility that York may find itself on that watchlist as an area of concern," she said.

"The pattern we are seeing at the moment is our trend is very similar to the trend we are seeing for other parts of the north - but our rate is lower than many of those other areas."

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Nearby council areas in Selby and Scarborough were both placed on the government's watchlist as areas of concern on 18 September.

It means increased monitoring of cases, but no additional lockdown requirements.

Large parts of West Yorkshire and north-east England remain under stricter local lockdown restrictions.

"There's every possibility that York is on the national radar at the moment because we have other local authorities that have high number of cases nearby. We are on that national radar," Ms Stoltz said.

She said the city council had put a bid in for a walk-in test centre to be established and had successfully requested government permission for its own local contact tracing system.

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