HEALTH chiefs concerned at the rise in Covid-19 in County Durham are keeping major public events planned for the next couple of weeks under constant review, it has been revealed.

Amanda Healy, Director of Public Health for County Durham, said her department was working closely with organisers of events such as the Durham City Run Festival and Durham Brass Festival, held from July 15 to 17 and July 14 to 18, respectively.

She said: “We are are engaging closely with event organisers to look at their plans and to ensure they are acting in a Covid-secure way. The Durham City Run Festival have already changed their plans because of the changes in restrictions.

“We are working with them on a day-to-day basis to see if it is still safe to go ahead and it anything changes obviously, it would be announced.

“Organiser have done a lot of work. Sunderland City Runs had their event last weekend and that went really well. We are looking and learning from they have done.”

Durham City Run Festival founder Steve Cram said previously: "For everyone’s peace of mind, we have adapted this year’s Durham City Run Festival to clearly separate the key running events, and there are certain elements of our schedule that won’t be the same as usual.

"Despite that, and thanks to the support of Durham County Council and Durham University, we will be hosting three fantastic days of running events, with something for all ages and abilities. It’s going to be a brilliant way to welcome back big events to the city of Durham this summer.”

Meanwhile, Ms Healy said: “Currently our rate in Durham is 206 per 100,000. That means we have seen just over 1,000 cases in the last seven days which is of concern.

“The majority of those cases are in our younger population – the 19s to 24-year-old age group. Obviously they are mainly unvaccinated. We are not seen that, as yet, translate into our older population, which is really encouraging.

“Vaccination has now been opened up to the younger population, so we are really encouraging people to come forward for vaccination.

“Whether its their second dose if its the right time for it, or whether it’s the first dose and they are a younger person, they really need to come forward.

“There are going to be lots of pop up vaccination clinics in County Durham and other parts of the North-East this weekend.”

Ms Healey said the authority was putting a lot of other measures in place to tackle the rise in cases.

She said: “We have put extra testing facilities in Durham city, our compliance officers have been out and visited all of the businesses and we have written to all the schools to get that key message across.

“Those are that the Delta variant is more transmissible and we are urging people to get back to basics following Hands, Face, Space, Fresh Air and Vaccination guidance.

“While there is concern at the rise in cases, we know what the drivers are and we are monitoring it really closely. We are working really closely with Public Health England to put measures in place to start to contain that spread.”

Ms Healy said health workers were finding Covid-19 was probabl6y mixing within households, with some mixing across households.

“When our compliance officers visited businesses, be it shops or hospitality, they found very good compliance. What we are finding is that within households once once person is infected it can very quickly spread to others.”

Since the beginning of this week three schools and a nursery have closed temporarily because of Covid-19.

Ms Healy said: “We have 266 schools in County Durham, so we have seen a slight increase in the number of young people who have become infected.

“It has been transmission within community rather than in the school. Our schools have done a huge amount of work to make sure that environment is as safe as possible."

Extra mobile testing units opened at Howlands and the overflow car park next to the former DLI Museum to increase access to PCR testing for those with symptoms. Open seven days a week, they require advanced booking.

Lateral flow device tests are available at council venues and pharmacies across County Durham. For information visit durham.gov.uk/Covid19testandtrace.

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