April 17, 2020 7.01 pm This story is over 47 months old

Cabin fever sets in: 80 lockdown breach reports in 24hrs as police fine 50 people

Isolation fatigue is getting to people
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Lincolnshire Police have had 80 reported breaches of the coronavirus lockdown in a 24 hour period as the county faces cabin fever and isolation fatigue.

The force has also confirmed that to date it has issued 50 fines to people ignoring the guidance, including two men from outside the county who travelled to visit Twyford Woods on Wednesday.

Bosses say the majority of the county is sticking to the rules, however, warned that they would be using the powers available to them if necessary.

It comes as the country faces at least three more weeks of lockdown.

Deputy Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police Jason Harwin, who is chairman of the Lincolnshire Resilience Forum, said so far the force had opted to focus on policing by consent, however, there were a number who were repeatedly ignoring the rules.

He confirmed that although no arrests had been made for breaching lockdowns – some repeat offenders had faced charges for other offences, including spitting and biting officers.

He said that so far there hadn’t been a significant number increase but there had been 80 breaches reported to the force in the past 24 hours.

“As this goes on longer, the cabin fever issue and isolation fatigue is likely to increase and we could potentially see an increase in people not complying.

“We’re working with communities to understand why it’s really important to comply and reduce the likely increase in numbers of deaths in the county where already the numbers are a lot higher than we would ever want them to be.”

He said the 70 deaths so far in Lincolnshire were “tragic cases” and which had left loved ones grieving.

“We’ve got to make sure those numbers, which are likely to increase being realistic, we do everything we can to make sure they don’t increase to such levels, where people following the advice could have reduced that likelihood.”

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