THE LEADER of Harlow Council has responded to news that the NHS in Harlow and the rest of Essex has been described as a “major incident” due to Covid-19 related pressures.

Councillor Mark Ingall said, “It is a tragedy that our hospitals are reaching a point of such crisis that they may have to close their doors to both new Covid patients and other non-Covid admissions while Nightingale hospitals stand empty due to a lack of staff.

The Health Secretary said last week that the spread of the new variant was “out of control”.

These figures suggest he was right, but not enough has been done quickly enough to bring things back under control.

Doubtless the government will eventually get around to looking again at lockdown restrictions and think again about opening schools to all primary pupils and Year 11 and 13 in secondaries next week, but in the meantime I would ask residents of Harlow to keep themselves safe by going further than the government has so far suggested, isolating themselves in their family groups whenever possible, wearing masks whenever they are out in public and rigorously washing hands and maintaining Covid security. ”