Derbyshire MP issues update about talks to place whole county in Tier 2 lockdown

Derbyshire MPs today met with Health Minister Nadine Dorries online to discuss the rest of Derbyshire joining Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire in Tier 2.

However, Toby Perkins, Labour MP for Chesterfield, announced online that the meeting was cut short by the video chat time limit.

Toby Perkins MP said on Twitter: “Today, Derbyshire MPs had a meeting with Health Minister Nadine Dorries to discuss introduction of Tier 2 restrictions for rest of Derbys, but meeting ended abruptly because the DHSC set up the meeting on a free Zoom account and so it cut off after 45 minutes!

“Amateur hour!”

The news does not come as a shock to Derbyshire residents as infection rates continue to climb across the board in the county.

As well as this, all of nearby Nottinghamshire will enter even higher restrictions on Friday when it goes into Tier 3.

Toby Perkins added: “Meeting revealed that transmission rates in over-60s throughout Derbyshire are escalating rapidly (around 90% in Chesterfield in last seven days) and Minister said that strategy was for Tier 2 until rate of hospitalisations started to fall. Chesterfield now has c440cases /100k.”

The latest figures, for October 19-25, show there were 354 positive cases of coronavirus recorded in Chesterfield during that week, meaning that the weekly infection rate leaped up to 337 cases per 100,000 people.

There were 125 positive cases of Covid-19 recorded in the Derbyshire Dales between October 19 and 25, 31 more than the previous week.

In South Derbyshire, there were 371 cases in the latest week, up by 196.

It is unknown whether Derbyshire could join its neighbours in the highest restriction category at some point in the near future, but Lee Rowley, MP for North East Derbyshire has said that the county, including Chesterfield, is ‘going very rapidly in the wrong direction'.

Following news of an ever-increasing infection rate, Dean Wallace, director of public health for Derbyshire, has told people in the county to make sure they are staying home if someone in their family tests positive, in order to curb the impact of the virus.

Dean Wallace said: “Cutting off contact is the key to containing any virus – and coronavirus is no different in that respect.

“But as a new virus which we know relatively little about, self-isolation is our only defence at the current time to prevent it from reaching the vulnerable.

“We need people to stay at home if they or someone in their family tests positive – no matter how mild their symptoms may be.

“Just because you haven’t got symptoms, doesn’t mean you haven’t got it. If you live with someone who is infected, you could be carrying the virus too and infecting others, even if you feel fine."

There has also been a surge in Covid-19 patients at Derbyshire hospitals, with Chesterfield Royal Hospital issuing a warning for residents of the area to use NHS services ‘wisely’.