October 8, 2020 11.55 am This story is over 41 months old

Lincolnshire health bosses ‘nervous’ over Nottingham lockdown

Neighbouring county faced with imminent lockdown
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Health bosses in Lincolnshire have admitted they are nervous about an imminent local lockdown in Nottinghamshire following a dramatic rise in cases in the neighbouring authority.

Nottinghamshire currently has the fourth-highest infection rate in England.

The rate of infection for the city currently stands at 496.8 per 100,000, after cases increased from 314 in the week up to September 27 to 1,654.

Leaked government documents show new local restrictions will be announced until Monday, October 12, coming into effect from Wednesday, October 14.

Although government has not yet introduced tougher measures, local authorities across the wider county have urged residents to start taking precautions.

Speaking to BBC Look North on Wednesday, Lincolnshire County Council’s assistant director of public health Tony McGinty said he was not happy with Lincolnshire’s own rate of 84 per 100,000 in Lincoln and that the county had “no room to be complacent”.

Regarding the situation in Nottingham, he said: “It does make me nervous because obviously people from Lincolnshire move in and out of Nottingham really frequently.

“We’ve got fast road and rail access between Nottingham and Lincoln now as well, so it is worrying when an area that’s got a lot of crossover with ours has such a significant problem.”

He also backed the 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants, though added there needs to be more evidence that it works.

Lincolnshire County Council’s assistant director of public health Tony McGinty.

However, he said he was “not entirely convinced a two-week short, sharp, circuit breaker lockdown would be a good thing to do”.

“Not everywhere has got the same level of difficulty at this point in time, and clearly there is an economic and educational damage that comes with those sort of ideas,” he added.

Directly across the border from Lincolnshire, Newark and Sherwood District Council have called on residents to “start taking action now” ahead of any imminent lockdown.

The district’s rate of infection yesterday was 111 per 100,000 of population.

David Lloyd, leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “As a district, we managed to contain our local outbreak in August this year. We all took action and did what was needed to be done.

“I now need to ask everyone to step up again to protect each other.

“We need to protect those who were shielding, those who are vulnerable, our parents, our grandparents and our community.

“No one can be complacent and being so is a threat to people’s lives.”

“We are facing a critical point in controlling the spread of the virus as we head towards winter. So we just have to keep going.”