Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore has today expressed his disappointment that his constituency is to remain in the highest tier of Covid restrictions: tier three.
The news comes after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s announcement that a number of local authorities have moved between tiers, some moving into tougher restrictions whilst others see restrictions relaxed.
The Bradford District has been under local restrictions since 21 July this year. This of course followed the first national lockdown which began in March. The rate of infection per 100,000 has been falling across the District. The current rate of infection in the Bradford District is 175.3 per 100,000. In comparison, the rate of infection in Bromsgrove (Worcester) is 213.3 despite the town still being in tier two.
Despite falling Covid cases, local hospitals such as Airedale General Hospital and well as Bradford Teaching Hospital and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals are still full to capacity which has led to this decision.
Commenting Robbie Moore said: “Residents across the Keighley and Ilkley constituency have worked incredibly hard to follow the rules so that we can get the rate of infection down with the hope our area can be placed in a lower tier. On Monday this week, I spoke in the Chamber about how well we are doing in getting our positive Covid case rates down and I forcefully put across the case that we should drop to Tier Two."
"I am extremely frustrated that despite significant progress being made in getting the infection rate down, we are to remain in Tier Three, when other areas of the UK with higher infection rates remain in lower tiers. This is very disappointing and something I will continue to bring to the attention of the Health Secretary.”
“I appreciate that our local NHS hospitals are at capacity – winter is generally a busy time for our health services. However, the rate of infection in our area has been falling for a number of weeks now and continues to do so. It is my hope that this is taken into consideration at the next review in two weeks’ time.”
