EMERGENCY services, councils and key workers are making a call for Teesside to play its part in responding to the need for continued commitment to social distancing.

Middlesbrough and the Tees Valley has been highlighted as one of England’s most likely hotspots to ignore government advice to stay at home, save lives and protect the NHS.

With a population of almost 700,000, a recent survey indicated that about 25 per cent of people in Middlesbrough will ignore the official advice.

The North-East region is reported to have the highest coronavirus infection rate in the UK, with just over 9,000 confirmed cases to date.

Now key workers from across Teesside have joined forces to issue a plea to ensure residents do not continue to top a table of communities that have flouted the rules, leading to a further spread of the disease.

Staff from local NHS trusts, the police and fire services, local authorities, and shop workers have released a Teesside-centric collaborative message across the region to keep going, to stay safe and ultimately save lives.

The campaign echoes the sentiments of North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which issued a similar drive in early April.

Julie Gillon, chief executive of the trust, said: “When our initial campaign was launched we were planning to ensure that our region would be safe, that our services would be future proofed.

"We now need to come together as key workers more than ever to protect the Teesside population, to keep our key worker colleagues safe. As a combined voice, working together we can enact this."

Chief Superintendent Thom McLoughlin, head of local policing at Cleveland Police, added: “The Government continues to require people to stay home and only go out if they need to fetch food or medicine, to go to work if it’s essential or to exercise.

"Even when you leave your home, you need to continue social distancing and keep at least two metres away from other people to protect yourself and others.

“Cleveland Police would like to once again thank the vast majority of local residents for working with us and partner organisations at this difficult time. We’ve been supporting over half a million people in the Cleveland area to do the right thing and help save lives and their response has been heroic.”

The video will also be released alongside a series of images that offer suggestions about what two metres apart might mean for a Teessider – from ten Teesside parmos to 25 lemon tops, ten copies of a James Arthur LP to the length of Boro player Dael Fry, stood on a football.

Watch the video on youtube/dEHVnMPDwJM