'Door knockers' could be used to warn of any coronavirus spikes in Sunderland

July saw health chiefs imposed new lockdown measures in parts of Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire following a rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

It prompted some councils in the region, including Liverpool, to send volunteers house to house to raise awareness of testing and other public health advice, in a bid to avoid similar measures in their own areas.

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And bosses in Sunderland have suggested they could use similar tactics if infections begin to spike in concentrated areas.

“It isn’t something we have considered in any detail, but we’re not aware of any area of the city being at greater risk than any other,” said Geoff Walker, Sunderland City Council’s cabinet member for Healthy City, when asked if door knockers could be sent out in Wearside.

“We could get involved at a very localised level, but at this time we don’t think we have had anything we could identify at such a level.”

Cllr Walker also emphasised the need for up to date figures on infection rates and positive tests to keep new outbreaks under control.

He added track and trace had sometimes been ‘difficult to manage’ because of the availability of data, which handled by a range of organisations, including hospital trusts, GPs and private labs.

The council’s own COVID-19 Control Plan states ‘rapid access to sufficiently detailed data will be critically important’ in containing the virus, but also concedes ‘basic flows of clinical and testing data are not yet available’.

The issue has also been highlighted by the Sunderland branch of the Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) campaign.

Group chairwoman Pam Wortley said: “We’re concerned the measures are being dictated centrally by the government and a lot of the work is being done by private companies.

“We need a locally based service involving GPs and the public health authorities to make sure it is handled straight away.

“Those who don’t have easy access to testing have to wait for it to come to their homes and then wait for the result to come back – that can take up to five days [altogether].”

She added: “We need to get this controlled by the time the children go back to school.”

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