NORTH East health bosses have said they are “cautiously optimistic” that the region has seen the worst of the Omicron wave while others have stressed there is still work to be done.

Louise Wallace, director of public health for North Yorkshire, told a meeting of North Yorkshire’s Outbreak Management Advisory Board that the latest figures showed “a much better picture.”

She said: "We are now seeing a decline in some of the numbers and I’m really hopeful that they are heading in the right direction.

However, County Durham’s director of public health, Amanda Healy, has stressed that “we cannot be complacent” and has urged people to “keep doing what they have been doing in following public health guidance.”

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Ms Healy said: “We are aware of the fall in case numbers both nationally and regionally and our rates in County Durham also show a decrease which is obviously to be welcomed.

“However, we know the figures for those who become seriously ill with Covid and require hospital services lag by up to ten days and we expect our health colleagues to continue to feel the pressure of these high rates.

“We cannot be complacent and we ask people to keep doing what they have been doing."

Ms Healy stressed that the best defence against the virus continued to be first and second doses of vaccines and booster jabs.

She added: “Taking lateral flow tests and following self-isolation guidance are also vital, as are wearing face coverings in most indoor settings, social distancing, continuing to practice good hand hygiene, meeting people outdoors wherever possible and ventilating rooms when gathering indoors.”

Figures for North Yorkshire showed a 43 per cent drop in the county’s weekly infection rate which now stands at 1,048 cases per 100,000 people.

However, Ms Wallace said infections were still higher than previous months and that this was putting pressure on care homes, hospitals and schools.

Ms Wallace said: “We are now seeing a decline in some of the numbers and I’m really hopeful that they are heading in the right direction.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we are turning the tide, but we still do have 854 daily cases.

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“And of course we have had changes to testing arrangements over the last few weeks which may be having an impact on some of the data.”

Latest figures show there have been seven Covid-related deaths in North Yorkshire in the last week – fewer than this time last year when the county was averaging five deaths each day.

Figures in County Durham show there were 1,821 cases per 100,000 seven days up to January 11, down from 2,224 seven days to January 4.

The same can be said for Darlington which had 1,856 cases per 100,000 seven days to January 11 also down from 2,209 cases per 100,000 people leading up to January 4.

Stockton, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Redcar and Cleveland have also seen a reduction in cases leading up to January 11.

However, NHS staff expressed concerns that fewer people are now testing for Covid and that this was “skewering” the true rates of infections and estimates on how many more patients could need hospital treatment.

This comes as the self-isolation period for people who test positive has been cut to five full days in England.

From today, people will be able to leave isolation after negative lateral flow tests on days five and six in a move to ease pressure on staffing shortages across the private and public sectors.

This was announced last week by the government which is reportedly seeing “encouraging” signs that the Plan B restrictions in England could be removed after a review on 26 January.

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The current restrictions include guidance to work from home, the widespread use of face coverings and NHS Covid passes for some events.

Meanwhile, teenagers aged 16 and 17 can now book their booster vaccines online from today. The top-up jabs are also being made available to clinically vulnerable 12 to 15 year olds.

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