Public transport unions have warned the government may struggle to get people back to wearing masks if COVID surges in the winter, as 583 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Greater Lincolnshire.
Government figures on Monday showed 361 new cases in Lincolnshire, 86 in North East Lincolnshire and 136 in North Lincolnshire.
Five further deaths of Greater Lincolnshire residents were confirmed in the government figures, with four in Lincolnshire and one in North East Lincolnshire.
NHS data reported one fatality at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust.
A new report from the RMT union has said the number of people wearing masks on public transport and at major railways stations has dropped from 80% to 20%.
Mike Lynch, general secretary said people were ignoring rules even where masks were mandatory.
“As more people see others failing to comply, the situation will escalate quickly over the autumn,” he said.
“With the government already making compulsory mask wearing on transport a contingency if cases escalate in the coming weeks, there is a real danger they won’t be able to get the genie back into the bottle.”
Lincolnshire’s coronavirus cases up to September 20. | Image: GOV.uk
A government spokesman said people needed to take personal responsibility.
“The guidance is clear that people are expected and recommended to wear a mask when they come into contact with people they don’t normally meet in enclosed and crowded spaces,” they said.
“It is open to transport operators to decide if they want to implement their own policies, working within their particular environment.”
Elsewhere, the Department of Education said just 0.7% of pupils were absent from school with COVID in England last week. The figure is a fall on previous ones.
Meanwhile, University College London (UCL) has warned that around 10,000 people could die of cancer earlier because of increased pressure and a lack of resources in the NHS.
It follows a survey of 2,096 UK adults in May and found three in four wanted blood tests for cancer screening.
Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday, September 21
109,001 cases (up 583)
71,511 in Lincolnshire (up 361)
17,210 in North Lincolnshire (up 136)
20,280 in North East Lincolnshire (up 86)
2,321 deaths (up five)
1,699 from Lincolnshire (up four)
316 from North Lincolnshire (no change)
306 from North East Lincolnshire (up one)
of which 1,393 hospital deaths (up one)
853 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)
44 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)
1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)
496 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up one)
DATA SOURCE — FIGURES CORRECT AT THE TIME OF THE LATEST UPDATE. POSTCODE DATA INCLUDES DEATHS NOT IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES OR IN HOSPITALS OUTSIDE AUTHORITY BOUNDARIES.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Whatsapp
