Coronavirus: Tier 3 rules for Nottingham 'must come with support'

Any tighter coronavirus restrictions in Nottingham must come with support for businesses, the council leader has said.

David Mellen said he had been told the city - which has the highest infection rate in England - could go into tier three if cases did not fall.

This would mean pubs and bars not serving meals being closed and advice against travelling.

Mr Mellen said no discussions had started but adequate support was vital.

When the new alert system was announced last week, Nottingham was placed in tier two, partly because the infections were largely in young people.

At that stage Mr Mellen wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, asking for financial support.

Mr Mellen also said government health officials had made it "very clear" Nottingham's alert level would change if rates did not fall.

By Friday, Nottingham's infection rate had been the highest in England for nine days running - but the rate itself had dropped, from 892.2 per 100,000 people to 807.4.

Mr Mellen said no date had been set for talks but his expectations were set by what was happening in Liverpool and Manchester.

He said: "Covid is a real danger but so is business failure and unemployment.

"We need to have some investment in our city from government to prevent that from happening if we are going into a higher level of restriction."

He acknowledged the rate seemed to be coming down but other signs were worrying.

He said: "The figures amongst people over 65 are going up slowly which is worrying because of the propensity of those people to be ill.

"We also know that the numbers in our hospitals are going up.

"At the beginning of the week, department of health officials were saying that they would be talking to us about tier three quite soon and on Friday bringing to our attention the state of the hospitals was kind of a precursor to discussions in the coming week about tier three."

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital, said rising coronavirus cases had led to non-urgent surgery being cancelled.

According to NHS England's most recent figures, the hospitals had 62 Covid-19 admissions in the week to 11 October, up from 28 in the previous week.

However cancer operations and other urgent procedures are unaffected.

A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care insisted it could not pre-empt any decisions.

"The Covid Alert Levels simplify and strengthen rules to help protect lives and reduce the transmission of the virus, whilst minimising the impact to livelihoods and the economy," the spokesperson said.

"Decisions are made in close consultation with local leaders and public health experts, informed by the latest evidence."

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