MORE than a third of people traced with covid had been “out and about” in bars and restaurants  according to a Teesside health chief.

A study carried out by South Tees public health team found 40 per cent of 200 people traced had been found to be out in eateries, bars and venues in the town when positive cases were tracked down. 

A figure of 80 per cent household transmission, derived from the national test and trace system, was used as a key pillar in Middlesbrough Council’s request for bars and restaurants to be allowed to stay open at the start of October.

But Mark Adams, South Tees director of public health, told councillors how more detailed analysis by teams on Teesside had uncovered how many people had been out in bars and restaurants. 

He said: “Until around a week or two ago, before numbers started to increase, we were calling all positive cases.

“We now call a prioritised set based on age, employment and settings. 

“Around 40 per cent of people had been out and about in pubs, restaurants and in town previously – hence the concern about those settings potentially bringing coronavirus into households.”

The health chief’s presentation to Tuesday’s scrutiny panel showed those aged 23 to 34 had the highest rate of infection in the borough – an older cohort than the 18 to 21-year-old students with the virus in Newcastle. 

Middlesbrough saw lockdown restrictions come into line with the rest of Teesside on Wednesday – with no household mixing indoors maintained but rules around meeting in a garden relaxed slightly. 

Data from the NHS dashboard show the town’s rolling weekly rate of covid stands at 266.7 per 100,000.

This is higher than neighbouring Redcar and Cleveland on 188.1 per 100,000 but lower than Stockton’s 309.1 cases per 100,000. 

Cllr Joan McTigue, chairwoman of the health scrutiny panel, branded the crisis a “nightmare” and asked about the 40 per cent of people who had been “out and about”. 

Mr Adams said the public health team had done its own study of cases after national figures were “so low that we didn’t believe they were accurate”. 

He added: “While we’ve said previously that 80 per cent of the transmission is within the household, of course, it has to get into the household first.

“The logical thing is it gets in from contact outside somewhere. 

“This (study) was to give a sense of the level to which potentially being in a pub or a venue like that might be amplifying the infection rate.”

There have been calls across Teesside for the Government to offer more support to businesses, bars and restaurants who aren’t eligible for further support in tier two of the new restrictions. 

Middlesbrough Council has also requested an extra £7.4m to cope with rising demands from the virus so it can enhance its own testing and trace capabilities, support care homes and boost enforcement.

Mr Adams said: “At the moment, the offer is for us to pick up contacts they’ve not been able to pick up nationally after 24 hours by doing door knocking and other work to contact them.

“But with no resources to follow that.

“We’re all working extremely hard as it is anyway – so, while the logic of that is reasonably clear, to have local knowledge, and even just a local phone number which will make a difference to a national number that people think is scam, without resources it makes that more difficult to do.”

The health chief added the existing system was tracing about 67 per cent of contacts of positive cases in Middlesbrough – compared with some other local authority areas which were tracing more than 95 per cent of contacts.