In January last year, nurse Fiona Cook was on shift as the UK’s first two coronavirus patients were admitted to Newcastle upon Tyne’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. Sixteen months on, she watches people trickling into the Covid-19 vaccine clinic at the Centre for Life science village in the heart of the city. “We’re in the final stretch, hopefully,” said Cook.
But as the north-east of England — along with the rest of the UK — nervously awaits the end of almost all public health restrictions on Monday, the region is being battered by skyrocketing cases, among the highest infection rates in Europe.
Local public health officials and politicians are apprehensive as England prepares to drop the mask mandate and social distancing rules, despite cases in the region surging to almost double the number at the height of the second wave. The rise is being driven by younger, unvaccinated groups.