England’s former deputy chief medical officer Sir Jonathan Van-Tam said he no longer wears a face mask despite COVID-19 cases continuing to rise in the UK.
Although face mask restrictions have eased, some people still choose to wear them at a time when the number of people testing positive in England has risen by 29.1% (83,331 people) in the last seven days.
The total number of cases in Lincolnshire stands at 234,857. according to the latest government data.
According to the COVID dashboard the county’s seven day average for cases has tripled from a low of 49.1 per 100,000 population on May 28 to 149.6 on June 15. Incomplete data for June 19-21 also shows cases to be above the 200 a day level in Lincolnshire.
Van-Tam stepped down from his government post at the end of march to take on a new job at the University of Nottingham, where he is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Van-Tam, who was named The Lincolnite Person of the Year in 2020, still gets asked for his medical expertise and in an interview with BBC he said: “I don’t wear a face covering but if there were circumstances where I felt it was a really closed environment with very high crowding and very intense social interaction then those are the situations where I might think ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ and I think people have got to learn to frame those risks for themselves.”
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.
Court summons are pending for two motorists, one in a car and another on a motorbike, after they clocked up unbelievable speeds on the A46 on Tuesday.
Lincolnshire Police Specialist Operations received two reports of excessive speeds on the A46 between Newark and Lincoln on Tuesday.
A car and motorbike both hit speeds of almost double the dual carriageway speed limit, with the car driver reaching 120 miles per hour and the motorbike going even quicker at 127mph.
Both motorists will be receiving a summons for court “in due course”, according to Lincolnshire Police.
Work by our Lincoln Neighbourhood Policing Teams to combat theft in the city has had another boost following the charge of a further two individuals.
Adam Golightly, 43, of Allandale View, Lincoln, was arrested following a proactive shop theft operation in the city centre last week. He has been charged with seven counts of theft and two bike thefts.
All of the shop thefts are reported to have taken place at Co-op stores in the city centre area and Carholme Road between June and last week. Items stolen included meat and cleaning products to the value of £424. The bike thefts also happened during that period. One of the bikes stolen was valued at £360, the other was an unknown value.
Following a hearing at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on 12 August where he entered a not guilty plea, he has been given conditional bail and will appear at the court for trial on 22 September. His bail condition is not to enter any Coop store in Lincolnshire.
In a separate case, Carl Atkin, 37, of Friar’s Lane, Lincoln, was charged on 11 August with five bike thefts which took place at different times and locations across the city. On 12 August at a hearing at Lincoln Magistrate’s Court, he was given a 10 week sentence, suspended for 12 months.