Metro Mayor hopes Liverpool City Region will avoid high Tier 3 Covid measures in BBC Breakfast interview

Southport and the rest of the Liverpool City Region should not be placed in the highest Covid Tier 3, Steve Rotheram told BBC Breakfast this morning. 

In an interview with Dan Walker, the Metro Mayor praised local people across Merseyside for their efforts in bringing down Coronavirus rates from over 700 per 100,000 last month to 180 per 100,000 across the region now. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reveal which areas in the UK will be placed in which Tier this Thursday (November 26). 

The Tier 3 Very High restrictions would require all hospitality venues to close, except for takeaway services, while indoor entertainment venues and hotels must also close. 

Shops, gyms, hairdressers and other businesses will be able to open across all three Tier systems. 

Tier 1 and Tier 2 areas would still see some restrictions in place, as the Prime Minister warned of “a hard Winter” after national Covid lockdown measures end on December 2.

He hopes that three potential Covid vaccines becoming available soon will help to bring back life towards some form of normality this Spring. 

Asked whether he knew about which Tier the Liverpool City Region would go into, Mr Rotheram said: “Only what has been on your news bulletins and what we heard anecdotally through conversations with Government but nothing concrete at this moment in time.

“We certainly hope we won’t be going back into the highest Tier.”

Mr Rotheram praised local people for their efforts in bringing down transmission of Covid-19 since the initial Tier 3 restrictions were brought into the region last month. 

He said: “The progress that has been made since we were put into Tier 3 has been remarkable.

“We had infection rates of 750 per 100,000 in two of our areas. These are now around 180 per 180,000 across the Liverpool City Region.

“Thank you to everyone who has taken part in the mass testing programme.

“We hope their hard work will pay off when the new Tiers are announced.” 

The Metro Mayor believes moving into one of the lower Tier regions will be a deserved reward for people’s sacrifices over the past few weeks in Merseyside:

“We said to the people, because you have got to take the people with you, that these were difficult and painful choices that the six leaders in the local authorities and myself took seven weeks ago.

“We said this gives us the best chance possible of getting out of the high Tier before Christmas and that is what the prize is.

“It would be absolutely unacceptable for us, given all the hard work, for us to go back into a higher Tier.

The numbers of positive Covid-19 cases in Sefton are continuing to drop, with a fall of -192 last week – a reduction of -23.7% from the previous week. 

In the seven days to 17 November 2020 Sefton recorded a total of 619 new cases. 

The figures are published every Wednesday, and all eyes will be on the latest numbers this week for both Sefton and across the Liverpool City Region as we wait to discover which Tier system we will be placed in when the new restrictions are announced on Thursday. 

For the week up to November 17, the city region’s infection rates were:

• St Helens – 259 per 100,000 residents 467 cases, -53 (-10.2%)
• Halton – 236 per 100,000 residents 305 cases, -22 (-6.7%)
• Liverpool – 230 per 100,000 residents 1,147 cases, -279 (-19.6%)
• Sefton – 223 per 100,000 residents (619 cases, -192 (-23.7%)
• Knowsley – 220 per 100,000 residents (333 cases -154 (-31.6%)
• Wirral – 157 per 100,000 residents (510 cases -121 (-19.2%) 
• Overall – 217 per 100,000 residents 

Last night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the current national lockdown will end on December 2. 

Areas in the country will then be placed into new Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 restrictions, with hospitality particularly impacted the higher the restrictions go. 

Restaurants, bars and cafes in Tier 3 areas must all close, except for takeaway services. 

Those in Tier 2 will be able to serve alcohol only with substantial meals. 

When the tier system was first announced at the start of October, the city region had the highest Covid infection rates in the UK, with local boroughs dominating the nation’s top 10 list. 

The Army was subsequently brought into Liverpool to carry out a Covid mass testing programme as a result, with soldiers staying at Pontins holiday camp in Southport. 

Since then, infection rates have more than halved and none of our region’s boroughs appear in the list of the country’s 100 most affected areas.

The region as a whole has an infection rate of 217 new cases per 100,000 residents – just a third of the level seen in Hull, which has the country’s highest infection rate of 652 new cases per 100,000 residents.

Even the city region’s worst affected borough, St Helens, has an infection rate of 259 new cases per 100,000 residents, putting it roughly in line with the national average and 114th in the overall list of worst affected boroughs.

Boris Johnson hailed the hopeful arrival of three new Covid vaccines which he believes will help to return life to some form of normality by Easter 2021.

The Government has ordered 100million Oxford / Astrazeneca vaccine doses and 350 vaccine doses overall. 

But he warned of a challenging Winter ahead until then. 

He said: “The pandemic cavalry is now in sight and we know that next year we will succeed and make this idea of a Covid lockdown redundant. 

“No other peacetime Prime Minister has asked so much of the British people and I am deeply grateful.

“This will still be a hard winter. But we have turned a corner and the escape route is in sight.” 

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