October 28, 2020 1.23 pm This story is over 40 months old

Surrounded by tier 3, Lincolnshire will stay in tier 1 for now

Staying put as case rise not alarming yet

Lincolnshire will stay in lowest (tier 1) lockdown for now, despite Nottinghamshire joining South Yorkshire in the toughest tier 3 restrictions from Friday.

The Lincolnshire Outbreak Engagement Board (LOEB) met on Wednesday to discuss the next steps for the region, which was tipped to move into tier 2 restrictions soon due to rising infections in Lincoln.

However, “looking at our current data, in my professional opinion, there is no reason to change our alert level at this point,” said Derek Ward Lincolnshire County Council’s Director of Public Health.

The LOEB consists of Lincolnshire County Council and the district councils, the LEP, plus the CCG and NHS providers, Healthwatch and the Police and Crime Commissioner.

A COVID-19 Health Protection Board (HPB) has also been set up to provide further expert insight and guidance.

“We are monitoring a wide range of numbers which would give an early warning of a small area or whole county resurgence of COVID-19 in Lincolnshire” said Cllr Martin Hill, Chair of the LOEB and Leader of Lincolnshire County Council.

“These include the results of testing carried out by our residents and hospital admissions for the disease, but also include things like sickness absence rates in some of our bigger public sector employers.”

“Although the rates everywhere else are much lower, infection rates in Lincoln itself have gone up recently but we aren’t anticipating that it will mean moving into any other tiers at this stage.

“But we are being vigilant and will do what is necessary going forward. Our message from the LOEB this morning is that there is a ‘status quo’  but we are very much alert to circumstances changing.”