Health News at Your Fingertips

More than 1,000 people who should have been self-isolating after entering the UK from abroad could not be traced by the police, new figures show.

Data released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on Wednesday revealed that up to 19 October, in 380 cases investigated by the police, people had given the wrong address so they could not be found and no police action could be taken, while another 629 were out when officers attended and so also faced no further police action.

The NPCC said these cases are referred back to UK Border Force.

NPCC chairman Martin Hewitt said:

It is not the police role to go searching for those people.

“As things stand, policing is now back to demand levels, in terms of demand for service and crime, as we were this time last year, give or take a few percentages.

“So we have to be very clear that we deal with those issues, and then we are very clear that we are supporting Covid regulations and the work against the virus, but we need to do that in a proportionate way.”

The latest figures from the NPCC show that crime levels have returned near to those pre-pandemic – they were 6% lower in the four weeks to September 27 than in the same period last year – while forces are also dealing with enforcing coronavirus restrictions.

The UK has recorded a further 310 coronavirus-related deaths and another 24,701 people have tested positive for the virus, latest government data shows.

On Tuesday, 367 new deaths were recorded across the country – the highest daily number since May.

Hospitals in parts of England, including Liverpool, Lancashire and Nottingham, are now treating more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave, NHS England has said.

Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said:

Coronavirus cases and hospitalised patients are rising sharply and in some parts of the country including Liverpool, Lancashire and Nottingham hospitals are now treating more Covid patients than at the peak of the pandemic in April.

At University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, the number of patients with Covid has jumped 27% in five days.

Analysis of data from the trust, which runs three hospitals across the West Midlands, showed 294 patients who had tested positive for the disease were being treated on Wednesday. That compares with 231 patients on October 23.

Over the same period, the number of Covid-positive patients in ITU increased to 34, from 30.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was not introducing a plus system after Bristol city council described its latest measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus as “tier 1 plus”.

“There are three local Covid alert levels which are enshrined in law and we are not considering the introduction of a ‘plus’ system,” she said.

“Bristol is currently at medium and local leaders have the authority to bring in some additional measures for their area, and we welcome local efforts to break chains of transmission.”

Extra measures than those currently in place in other tier 3 areas are also expected to come into force in Nottinghamshire, with tattoo parlours, beauty salons and sunbed shops likely to close.

The leader of Bradford council has said discussions about coronavirus restrictions in West Yorkshire are ongoing but the government appeared to be “unflinching in their resolve” to place the region into tier 3.

Susan Hinchcliffe said it was unclear what support would be offered to businesses in the event of a move to the higher tier but the government had told council leaders it would be a “template package” with no room for negotiation – although ministers had promised to clarify the support package in a further meeting.

The councillor said she was concerned about rising infection rates, hospitals reaching capacity, vulnerable people contracting the virus, rising mental health issues and people’s jobs.

Hinchcliffe added:

It is clear from our conversations so far that government are unflinching in their resolve to put Bradford and West Yorkshire into tier 3.

Our local residents and our local businesses need certainty about whether we are going into tier 3 or not.

Whilst government only called us in for a meeting about tier 3 at the beginning of this week, I know that continued national media stories have led residents and businesses to speculate for some time about whether West Yorkshire would be next after seeing neighbouring regions go into tier 3.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS trust has said “some procedures and non in-patient activity will have to be postponed” to manage “large numbers of very sick patients” across its three main sites.

The trust said cancelling any procedure was regrettable but necessary in response to “the sustained and growing pressures on our hospitals”.

It added patients with “urgent clinical needs and cancer” were being prioritised.

There are currently 294 patients with Covid-19, including 34 in ITUs, across its three main hospitals: Queen Elizabeth hospital Birmingham, Good Hope hospital in Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham Heartlands hospital.

About two-thirds of coronavirus fines have been handed to those under the age of 35, police figures show.

Data released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on Wednesday shows 20,223 fines for breaching coronavirus restrictions were issued by police in England and Wales between 27 March and 19 October – 17,451 in England and 2,772 in Wales.

These include 980 for breaches of local lockdown laws – with the majority issued by the Greater Manchester (374) and Northumbria (366) forces.

Overall, the weekly number of fines rose between mid-September and early October.

Around eight in 10 of the enforcement notices were issued to men, 78%, while 35% went to 18 to 24-year-olds, 18% to those aged 25-29 and 14% to people aged 30-34.

Beauty salons in Nottinghamshire will have to close when the region is placed under England’s strictest lockdown restrictions from Friday.

Jason Zadrozny, the leader of Ashfield district council, said the county had been placed in “tier 3 plus” as nail parlours, tanning salons and tattoo parlours would have to close as well as many pubs and bars.

He told the Guardian: “We’re effectively in tier 3 plus. The additions for us in Nottinghamshire on top of tier 3 are personal care things – sunbeds, nail parlours, beauty salons, tattoo parlours – on the recommendation of Public Health England because they think tier 3 wasn’t enough to dampen the curve across Nottinghamshire.”

Pubs and bars that cannot serve substantial meals will also have to close under the measures, it is understood, but hairdressers and barber shops will be allowed to remain open.

It had been thought that only the city of Nottingham and three other council areas would enter tier 3 this week, but rising infection rates mean this has been expanded to the whole of Nottinghamshire, a region of nearly 1.2 million people.

You can read the full report from my colleague Josh Halliday here:

Bristol is introducing Covid marshals, conducting deeper analytic work and taking on further powers of its local test-and-trace service as part of what it describes as “tier 1 plus”.

Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, said the city had been in discussion with the Department for Health and Social Care and local partners in the NHS and across the city over the past few weeks.

“Our rates in Bristol are rising and we are currently in Tier 1, which is the ‘medium’ local Covid alert level,” Rees said.

“Within this tier, we are taking targeted actions including the introduction of eight Covid marshals, deeper analytic work to identify rising tides of cases and taking on further powers of our local test-and-trace service to prevent further spread of the virus and protect our communities.

“These actions are being called tier 1 plus. Any further actions will be based on what we’re seeing locally and through discussion with our local partners across the city and central government.”

Rees called for people to abide by the rule of six, maintain social distancing and wear a face covering when indoors in mandatory settings.