Here are the latest updates from the last 24 hours

  • A decision on whether parts of the region will see tighter lockdown restrictions has been delayed as talks are set to continue over the weekend. Council and authority leaders in the Tees Valley, which includes Darlington, were in talks with Government yesterday over how Tier 3 restrictions will be imposed across the area. But council leaders will instead met with the Government on Monday, in order to consider what restrictions are needed to combat the rise in confirmed Covid cases and hospitalisation rates.
  • Three new Covid-19 testing sites are opening in Teesside.One new site in Hartlepool opened yesterday while two other sites will open in Guisborough and Eston in the coming weeks. The Hartlepool site is in Middlegate Car Park and is a walk-through facility for people with booked appointments who have been showing symptoms of Covid-19. Redcar and Cleveland Council has confirmed two sites will be opening in the car park at Belmont House, Rectory Lane in Guisborough and in the car park at the Inspire to Learn building, off Normanby Road, Eston. The new testing sites are expected to open within the next few weeks and offer testing seven days a week.
  • Yesterday, more than 1,300 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the North-East and North Yorkshire. Meanwhile 22 deaths were announced at hospitals in the region. Nationally, there were another 274 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
  • Around 570,000 people per week are becoming infected with coronavirus across England, new figures show, as senior scientists warned that a national lockdown is now needed. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey found cases “continued to rise steeply” in the week ending October 23, with an estimated 568,100 people in households becoming infected. Scientific advisers at the top of Government believe it is now too late for a two-week national circuit-breaker to have enough of an effect and a longer national lockdown is needed to drive the reproduction number, or R value, of the virus below one, reports the Press Association.
  • A warning that the UK could see 50,000 Covid-19 cases a day by mid-October appears to have been proven accurate, the latest data shows. The Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance announced his stark projection at a press conference in September, alongside chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, adding that there could be 200-plus daily deaths in November. His numbers had been criticised by other scientists as “not scientifically accurate” and implausible”.
  • People in the North-East have been warned against taking part in trick or treating this Halloween as council leaders have warned of the "devastating consequences" as a result. Council leaders in the North of the region have issued the stark warning as they warned that Covid-19 infections were "still too high".
  • The Eat Out to Help Out scheme caused a "significant" rise in Covid cases which "certainly accelerated the second wave", according to a new study. A study by the University of Warwick found a sharp increase in Covid infection clusters emerged a week after the scheme began.  Eat Out To Help Out was designed to boost struggling businesses after nation lockdown. It subsidised the cost of meals and non-alcoholic drinks by up to 50 per cent across tens of thousands of restaurants through August.
  • The leader of England’s biggest council has called for an immediate four-week national lockdown to prevent “avoidable deaths” and deeper economic damage. Birmingham City Council leader Ian Ward called for the Government to “immediately” impose a “circuit-breaker” ahead of Christmas. The city and wider West Midlands combined authority area has been widely mooted for a move to Tier 3 measures as soon as the end of next week, as infection rates continue to rise.