Covid rates in Nottinghamshire not falling 'as quickly as we need them to', says health boss

Jonathan Gribbin, director of Public Health for Nottinghamshire, said residents must ‘work harder’ to help control the virus and lift lockdown restrictions after a new variant was found to ‘spread more easily’.

It comes after Boris Johnson set out a four-step ‘roadmap’ to cautiously ease the UK out of lockdown, something Mr Gribbin says residents ‘can all work towards’.

But the roadmap is dependent on a series of tests, ‘guided by data, not dates’, including vaccine deployment, any emerging new variants along with infection rates.

The infection rate is falling overall in Nottinghamshire but concerns have been raised as some neighbourhoods still struggle to cope with Covid-19.

In North Nottinghamshire, these include the areas of Rainworth and Blidworth along with Kirkby Larwood and Kingsway.

These neighbourhoods have ratings of 417.2 and 400 per 100,000 of the population respectively- above the national average.

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“I would like to thank everyone in Nottinghamshire who has played their part in recent weeks,” said Mr Gribbin.

"The roadmap gives us all something to work towards and we can look forward to the summer with renewed confidence – and with fresh resolve for the work that remains to be done between now and then.

“Overall, the rates are reducing across Nottinghamshire, but not as quickly as we need.

"Far too many families have very sadly had to endure the burden of loss as a result of COVID-19 so we have a duty to continue to do all we can to protect the NHS and save lives.

"The dominant variant is much more easily spread than what we were used to last year.

He added: "The way to control it is the same but we need to work harder and more consistently to achieve the same level of suppression.

"This means that we must stick with the lockdown restrictions and the ‘hands, face, space’ rules.

"What people have been doing so far has secured some big reductions but I am urging everyone to continue with that.”

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