Care homes urged to suspend visits as Hartlepool coronavirus cases rise again

Hartlepool Borough Council’s acting director of public health has written to all care home bosses across the town to urge them to take the step “our priority is to protect our most vulnerable”.

The number of infections confirmed here by Public Health England has grown by 70 in the last fortnight with separate figures indicating that the seven-day rolling figure has increased from 20.3 to 52.3 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending September 7.

Explaining the decision to write to the care homes, Craig Blundred, the authority’s acting director of public health, said: “This is not a decision that has been taken lightly, as we understand the importance of visiting for residents and also for their family and friends, but our priority is to protect our most vulnerable.

“Our latest figures are extremely worrying with 70 confirmed cases over the past 14 days.

“This is a real wake-up call that every single one of us must stick rigidly to the safety rules.

“If we all play our part, we will start to see our numbers decrease again but if we don’t, they’ll continue to rise and this could have a significant impact on our vulnerable residents.”

Another eight infections were confirmed on Friday, September 11, taking the number of confirmed covid-19 across Hartlepool to 723.

This is still the second lowest figure among 12 local authority areas across the North East.

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