IT is really good that the Plan B Covid restrictions are being lifted and we can begin living our new normal lives alongside the virus.

However there is merit in listening to the voices coming out of our schools that say here, in the North East, we are going mighty fast.

The infection rate in all areas of the region is falling, and falling pretty fast, but we are still have the most infections of any part of the country. South Tyneside has the highest rate in the country, and most areas of the Durham and the Tees Valley have more than 1,300 infections per 100,000 people.

In London, where the omicron variant took hold first, the rates are down to around 750 per 100,000 – so nearly half what they are up here.

Not all areas of the country are moving through the pandemic at precisely the same time. The North East went into Plan B a bit early, but that is what London required.

The suspicion is that the sudden removal of the Plan B restrictions on Wednesday, after a torrid Prime Minister’s Questions, is as much about the needs of Boris Johnson as it is about the state of the whole country.

The message from No 10 is now to whip off the facemasks and rejoice in our freedom, yet in the North East at least a degree of caution should still be exercised.