All 285 year 11 pupils at Harrogate Grammar sent home due to covid

All 285 students in year 11 at Harrogate Grammar School have been told to stay at home to self-isolate for two weeks.

The school contacted families yesterday after the number of infections gradually increased between Thursday and Sunday to eight.

Only pupils in close proximity to those who test positive should isolate.

But the school decided to put the whole year group into isolation when the number of cases rose to eight.

It comes at a difficult time for the students, who were preparing to take mock GCSE exams this week.

A school spokeswoman acknowledged the outbreak had occurred at a bad time but added “the safety of pupils and staff must come first”.

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Pupils will now use school computers to complete some of their exams at home – at the same time as they would have done at school.

The students will upload their exam results into a secure folder.

A spokesperson for the school said:

“We know and respect that the students have worked hard to prepare for these exams so we wanted to give them the opportunity to complete them.

“We have made it achievable with the iPads, and so far we have had positive feedback.”

More cases and one more coronavirus death in Harrogate

There are 22 new cases in the Harrogate district today as the hospital reports another coronavirus death.

Public Health England figures for the district, which have been dropping steadily since the start of November, are now at 3,536 cases overall.

Harrogate District Hospital is now at 99 coronavirus deaths in total after it reported one more death today.

The death, while reported today, happened on Thursday. November 26.

It also comes as the Harrogate district prepares to move into tier two restrictions on Wednesday as the national lockdown ends.

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How Harrogate district avoided toughest tier rules

The government has explained how the Harrogate district avoided the toughest tier rules.

While case rates had been rising rapidly before the latest lockdown, they are improving in all but one of the districts in North Yorkshire.

The rates are lower than other parts of Yorkshire and the Humber, most of which are in tier three.

Scarborough, while at a higher rate than the rest of North Yorkshire, has seen its cases falling.

Positivity of cases is at 8.5%. The government will keep an eye on these indicators and may even change the tiers in a couple of weeks when they are up for review.

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Areas in tier three tend to not only have higher rates than North Yorkshire but also have pressure on NHS hospitals.

Meanwhile there were no new deaths reported at Harrogate District Hospital. The total count remains at 98.

Daily cases also continue to fall in the Harrogate district. The latest figures show an increase of 14 today up to a total of 3,514.

Tier two gives Harrogate district hotels hope for winter

Hotels in the Harrogate district breathed a collective sigh of relief yesterday as the area was told it was moving into tier two.

Tier two restrictions, while closing wet-led pubs, paves the way for hotels to reopen at the end of the lockdown next week.

It may not be the same sort of takings that hotels would normally hope for over the festive period but it is a positive sign for the sector.

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The Majestic Hotel on Ripon Road will now be able to bring its team back from furlough and it putting reopening plans in place.

Andy Barnsdale, the general manager at the Majestic Hotel, said:

“We are now planning the process of reopening on Wednesday and bringing the team back, which is good news.

“We are looking closely at the guidelines and tailoring our food options for our indoor careering as well as for the outdoor Majestic Winter Teepee.”

Anthony Blundell, the assistant general manager at West Park Hotel, said:

“We will of course have all the safety measures in place but I think we might be in for a busy December when we re open next week with lots of bookings already and more coming in.

“I think the substantial meals rule will have an impact, we will just need to convert those people who are coming for a drink into having a meal.”

Just 23 covid infections today as R number falls to 0.8

Just 23 coronavirus infections for the Harrogate district have been announced today by Public Health England.

The figure is well below the record 95 that occurred on November 9 and continues the recent sharp downward trend.

In more good news, the district’s R number, which refers to the rate of spread of the virus, has once again fallen, from 0.9 to 0.8.

It means every 10 people with covid will infect eight, so the virus is declining in the district as a whole.

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The seven-day average rate of infection has fallen to 128 per 100,000 people. It was over 300 three weeks ago.

The England average is 188 and the North Yorkshire average is 164.

Harrogate was placed in tier two restrictions today but this will be reviewed in two weeks time.

Harrogate catering companies fight to survive without Xmas parties

Harrogate’s catering companies are set to miss out on huge amounts of income this festive season with the loss of company Christmas parties.

Businesses across the Harrogate district are preparing to reopen next week under tier two restrictions. This mean only people in the same household can mix together indoors.

Catering companies like, Kings Catering and Harrogate Food and Drink (HGFD), rely on Christmas party bookings. But this year they have had to adapt in order to stay afloat.

Each has forecast huge losses as they prepare to miss out on another busy season for events.

HGFD serving food

Both companies are hopeful next year will allow them to cater events more frequently. Photograph: www.hgfd.co.uk

Ian King, owner of Kings Catering, says his company could lose out on up to £70,000 in turnover during December:

“Last Christmas we did around 8,000 Christmas dinners for parties and this year we can’t do anything like that. We’ve had to diversify and start delivering meals to houses for people to enjoy and then they’ve been getting on zoom to eat them with their friends and colleagues.

“Covid has had a huge impact we’re set to lose £70,000 in December in turnover. We’re working so hard to keep going, it’s our 24th anniversary soon and I want to be here to see our 25th year.”

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HGFD caters for events and weddings but after losing out on a lot of trade this year was hoping to cater for Christmas parties too. Co-owner, Andi Aikman, is determined to be positive after putting his company into “hibernation”. He said:

“We have lost out on quite a lot this year. We are going to fight for this, we’ve had to hibernate the company and I think it could be a while before we’re back to where we were.

“We’ve had to diversify to do other things to survive, so we’re doing some little things. We have to try and keep busy to keep our staff employed, we can’t just give up.”

Council hopes that North Yorkshire will move into tier one

The Harrogate district could move out of tier two into tier one if coronavirus infection rates continue to fall.

Local public health officials struck an optimistic tone in light of today’s announcement but warned against complacency.

They said in an emergency press briefing that it was possible for North Yorkshire to change tiers when they are up for review in two weeks.

Richard Flinton, chair of the the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, said:

“We are pleased that we are not in tier three. But I think we can say that this is not the time for complacency.

“We have to get into tier one and we need to use this time to drive down the virus in the county, we cannot be content in tier two.

“The winter period is a significant and potentially dangerous time in terms of how the virus could move.”

Currently there are more than 340 coronavirus patients in the hospitals that serve North Yorkshire.

That is higher than the first coronavirus wave when the patient numbers peaked at 302.

While the requirements for tier one are not entirely clear, the local officials set out some areas to look out for.

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Dr Lincoln Sargeant, director of public health in North Yorkshire, said:

“There are some indicators that we have from before this lockdown that we can aim for.

“We need to get the case rate, the positive case rate, the rates in the over 60s and the patients in hospitals down.

“I believe it is possible for us to have a safe Christmas and at the same time for the virus not to rebound in January.”

As North Yorkshire is surrounded by tier three areas there are concerns that visitors will try to take advantage of the lower restrictions.

Mike Walker, North Yorkshire Police’s assistant chief constable and gold commander leading the force’s coronavirus response, said:

“It is not acceptable for someone to travel out of a tier three area without a suitable reason. We do have enforcement powers in place to stop people doing this.

“We are one of the forces that issued the highest amount of fixed penalty notices at the start of the lockdown.”

Harrogate district pubs were ‘praying for tier one’

Pubs in the Harrogate district have voiced their disappointment at being placed in tier two at the end of lockdown.

Rick Jones, who owns the Water Rat and Valentino’s, said: “We were all praying for tier one. But with a very limited number of areas going into tier one it is not a surprise.”

He expects the impact of tier two to mean that business at the Water Rat pub will be down by around 30% compared to the same time last year.

Mr Jones added: “Celebratory casual drinks in December won’t be happening. There’s only so many times you can go out with your own household. There’s a vaccine in sight. We just have to face this and ride it out.”

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While trade will be down for his pubs, wet-led pubs that cannot serve substantial meals with drinks have to close.

Richard Park, of the Little Ale House, also said: “It is something we were expecting but we are of course disappointed. It just makes no sense to close small, safe pubs like ours.

“Just because we don’t have the capacity to cook substantial meals, whatever that means, we are forced to keep our doors shut.”

Megan Fairweather, the social media secretary at Harrogate and Ripon CAMRA, added:

“After an agonising wait, licensees across the country have had their worst fears confirmed – in all but three council areas in the country, pubs will either be closed or only able to open if they are serving substantial meals.”

Harrogate district to enter tier two restrictions

The Harrogate district will enter tier two restrictions at the end of the national lockdown.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, will set out the rules each area will be under in the House of Commons today.

However, a government website that has since crashed pre-empted the announcement. Here’s the full list.

When you put in a local postcode it says that the Harrogate district and North Yorkshire is under tier two.

The district is in tier two.

The new rules will come into force next Wednesday, December 2. It is unclear when the restrictions will come to an end.

North Yorkshire had been in tier one restrictions before the second national lockdown.

Local public health officials said in a press briefing yesterday that the coronavirus rates are an indicator of the different tiers.

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Most of North Yorkshire is below the England average seven-day rate of 201 cases per 100,000.

Scarborough and Selby are the only local areas above the national average. They have rates of 280 and 232 respectively.

While Harrogate and Ryedale have the lowest case rates in the area with 147 and 132.

The local officials also said that they would favour a system where North Yorkshire is split into different districts.

What are the rules in tier two?

Tier two:

What about Christmas?

Coronavirus restrictions will be eased across the UK between December 23 and December 27 to allow for a Christmas closer to normal.

It will mean that three households will be able to form a temporary bubble. It must be fixed but there will be no limit on numbers joining bubble.

Those who are self-isolating should not join one of these so-called Christmas bubbles.

If someone is in an at-risk group the government has said they must their their own judgement and consider the risks of mixing over Christmas.

R number falls below 1 in the Harrogate district

The R number has fallen below one in the Harrogate district for the first time since the second wave of the pandemic took off.

The number has fallen to 0.9 — anything below one means the spread of the virus is declining.

Infection rates have fallen dramatically in the second half of November and are now lower than they were at the start of lockdown.

Public Health England confirmed another 36 infections in the district today.

However, leading public health figures suggested at a media briefing today of North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, a partnership of agencies that tackles emergencies, the county could be put in tier two or even tier three tomorrow.

However, the national government will decide.

Such a move would devastate many pubs that do not serve substantial meals, as they would be unable to open.

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Today’s briefing also revealed Harrogate District Hospital currently has 31 covid patients, which is four more than last week.

North Yorkshire as a whole has 272 covid patients. There were 302 at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in spring.

No deaths were reported at Harrogate District Hospital today. However, there were four in the previous three days, bringing the total to 98.

A total of 54 care homes in the county currently have covid outbreaks.

Pupil attendance in schools is 87 per cent.

Central Harrogate has had the most positive cases in the Harrogate district in the last seven days, with 23.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Pateley Bridge and Nidd Valley has had none.