North Yorkshire Police Superintendent Mike Walker is warning residents not to undo their hard work in reducing the spread of Coronavirus with complacency.

Harrogate is currently recording 38 new Covid cases per 100,000 people, whilst the average for North Yorkshire and the UK as a whole are 46 and 59 respectively.

But Supt Walker has reminded people to continue efforts to reduce the infection rate ahead of the Easter holidays.

He also assured residents that North Yorkshire Police will continue to “play their part” in tackling the Covid crisis:

“Together with our partner agencies and the people of York and North Yorkshire, it is imperative that we maintain the collective effort to reduce the infection rate as low as possible while the vaccination programme is rolled-out across the population.

“We can all see that better times are on the horizon, that’s why we must keep going and not allow all the hard work and sacrifice to be undone through complacency.

“We all must keep adhering to the health protection regulations around travel and gatherings, maintaining social distance, wearing face coverings in shops and on public transport, and keeping our hands as clean as possible.

“From a policing point of view, we will continue to play our part in tackling the public health crisis as we head towards the Easter holidays.”

North Yorkshire Police are preparing patrol plans to ensure there are sufficient resources to continue their ‘4’s approach’ – to engage with the public, explain the regulations, encourage compliance, and enforce if there is no other way of dealing with breaches.

Supt Walker added:

“The patrol plans will obviously reflect any changes in legislation post 29th March as part of the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown.

“When it is safe to do so, we will welcome visitors to the county again. However, everyone can expect to see an increased policing presence as we work alongside our partners to help keep the virus at bay in the weeks and months ahead.

“Also, we expect normal policing demand to increase as the regulations are further relaxed, therefore North Yorkshire Police will utilise the Government’s surge funding provided to ensure we can respond to the public as they would expect.”

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