'It is vital we carry on social distancing' - Sunderland City Council welcomes fall in city's coronavirus case rate

According to data released by Public Health England on Thursday, July 9, Sunderland’s coronavirus case rate has gone down.

A weekly report is now being released every Thursday, showing the latest Covid-19 case rates per 100,000 population by local authority area.

The latest data for the city shows that Sunderland’s case rate for the week ending Sunday, July 5 is 0.7 – down from 1.8 cases in the previous seven days.

Welcoming the lower case rate, Gillian Gibson, Sunderland’s Director for Public Health, stressed that it was vital social distancing continued.

“It’s great to see the numbers going down thanks to people continuing to follow social distancing guidelines,” she said.

"However because the numbers are so small, we do expect to see fluctuations in the figures in the coming weeks and months and it’s quite possible that we will get the odd cluster in a localised environment such as a workplace, a school or a care home.

“The good news is that we have plans in place to deal with any such flare-ups and to help prevent the virus circulating more widely.

"We published our Covid control plan last week which sets out what we are doing to prevent these and how we will deal with them when they do.

“It is also vital that we all carry on observing social distancing and good hand hygiene and continue to stay at home as much as possible.”

Reminding the public the need to get tested if they show coronavirus symptoms, the Public Health Director added: "Those who test positive or are a close contact of someone who has tested positive, must also self-isolate as requested.

“It is only by working together and all playing our part that we can protect ourselves and others and have the best chance of avoiding any future spike in local cases that could result in a local lockdown."

Tests can be booked through www.nhs.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119.

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