Following a government announcement earlier today that additional social restrictions are scheduled to be imposed from midnight tonight across seven North East England local authority areas the council has issued guidance based on the information they’ve received so far from the government:
The Government has today (Thursday 17 September) announced that additional restrictions will come into effect from 00.01 Friday 18 September. The main points are outlined below; however we are still awaiting clarification from Government on the finer details.
Legislation - regulations will lawfully enforce the following:
- Residents must not socialise with other people outside of their own households in private homes and gardens
- All hospitality for food and drink will be restricted to table service only
- Late night restriction of operating hours will be introduced, with venues required to close between 10pm to 5am.
Guidance:
Residents are also advised to adhere to the following guidance to further reduce rates of infection:
- Residents should not socialise with other people outside of their own households in all public venues.
- Residents are advised to only use public transport for essential purposes, such as travelling to school or work (rather than car sharing etc)
- Holidays should be taken within your own household or support bubble
- Residents are advised against attending amateur and semi-professional sporting events as spectators.
Further details are outlined in the FAQs (awb://www.durham.gov.uk/localrestrictions)
Why?
Locally, we are also seeing a significant rise in cases and a shift from isolated outbreaks to more general community transmission. Based on the current trend, we forecast that by the end of the month, we could be experiencing daily rates in the region of 60 per 100,000.
The distribution of cases now closely matches the distribution of population across the county.
- We are seeing an increase in cases in more isolated rural areas.
- In addition to areas where we have known outbreaks, we now have other parts of the county with equally high rates, but where we have yet to identify a common source or identifiable link between cases.
A similar picture is emerging in a number of local authority areas across the entire region, and the seven North East local authorities agreed to work to greater regional coordination and an enhanced approach to tackle the pandemic.
With cases significantly rising it is vital that everyone works together to help reduce the spread of the virus and any future lock down. We appreciate that some of the restrictions may be challenging but they are crucial.
We will be providing further communications to residents, businesses and other stakeholders so they know how they can play their part.
Further information will be available on: awb://www.durham.gov.uk/localrestrictions If you have any further queries after reviewing the website please contact our County Durham Together hub on 03000 260 260 or communityhub@durham.gov.uk
