Harrogate’s full-time coronavirus testing site is due to open next week.

The Department of Health and Social Care site will be located in the Dragon Road car park, which has been home to the mobile testing centre over the past few months.

The mobile testing centre has generally been open for four hours a day, two days a week.

The new full-time centre is due to begin operating on Wednesday next week. After an initial pilot period, it will be open between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week.

People will be able to turn up on foot, unlike at the mobile testing centres. However, tests must still be booked in advance,

While the permanent site is being built, the mobile testing facility will move to Harrogate Hydro on Friday this week and then Harrogate High School on Sunday.

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North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, a partnership organisation that includes councils, emergency services and health bodies that tackle the pandemic, successfully made the case for permanent centres in Harrogate and Scarborough to the DHSC.

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

“We have worked hard to retain and increase the level of testing across the county, so we are pleased that our efforts have resulted in the creation of these two sites, which will be up and running shortly.

“We will continue to lobby for further expansion of testing facilities across the county.”

The Stray Ferret asked the DHSC the cost of building the permanent testing centre in Harrogate but had not received a response by the time of publication.

The Harrogate district recorded a further 24 positive coronavirus cases today, according to the latest Public Health England figures.

It takes the total number of cases in the district since the start of the pandemic to 1,436.

Harrogate has been spared further restrictions with the news that it has been placed in the lowest category in the government’s new three-tier local lockdown system.

It means the district will continue to follow national measures, such as the rule of six, but will face no additional local restrictions.

Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative MP for Malton and Thirsk, confirmed this afternoon that North Yorkshire would be in the medium alert level of the new tier system.

Good news that we’re still in Medium Alert level (lowest) so current rules still apply in North Yorkshire, so, for example, can still go to a pub/restaurant in a group of 6 from up to 6 different households

— Kevin Hollinrake MP (@kevinhollinrake) October 12, 2020

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the new tier system earlier today, which will see millions of people in the north of England affected from 5pm on Wednesday.

Mr Johnson said:

“It is the narrow path we have to tread between the social and economic costs of a full lockdown and the massive human and indeed economic cost of an uncontained epidemic.

“I must warn the House the weeks and months ahead will continue to be difficult and will test the mettle of this country. I have no doubt at all that together we will succeed.”

According to figures released by North Yorkshire County Council today the Harrogate district has the highest rate of coronavirus cases of the seven district councils in North Yorkshire.

Currently, the Harrogate district has a seven-day coronavirus rate of 117 per 100,000 people and a total of 1,437 cases since the start of the pandemic.

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The government is set to announce tougher lockdown restrictions today for millions of people in northern England — but to what extent the Harrogate district will be affected remains unclear.

Pub closures and a ban on travel outside of restriction zones are on the cards for swathes of the north, as part of a new three-tier lockdown system.

While metro mayors Steve Rotheram in Liverpool and Andy Burnham in Manchester are threatening to rebel against the initiative, leaders in North Yorkshire have so far kept quiet.

The Stray Ferret today asked Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council whether the government had consulted them on the tier system, if they knew which tier the district was likely to be allocated and whether they agreed with it.

The borough council referred us to the county council, which had not replied by the time of publication.

Rising infection rates

Harrogate has a covid rate of 127.5 per 100,000 people. The figure for North Yorkshire as a whole is 101.9, according to NHS Digital.

Harrogate’s infection level is rated as high but nevertheless is well below the 689.1 figure for Nottingham or 578.7 in Liverpool.

Craven has the highest case rate in the county at 166 per 100,000. Ryedale stands at 102, Richmondshire at 109 and both Scarborough and Selby at 91.

The number of cases in the Harrogate district has increased sharply since the start of September. A further 42 cases were confirmed yesterday, taking the overall number to 1,412.

Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England, said this morning the Harrogate Nightingale hospital will be asked to “mobilise to be ready to accept patients if necessary”.

Read more:

• Harrogate bars warn further measures could ‘finish us off’
• Harrogate to get permanent Covid testing site

Harrogate’s Nightingale Hospital at Harrogate Convention Centre, Kings Road, has been asked to be ready to accept patients.

The Harrogate district relies heavily on hospitality trade and local businesses have been vocal about the impact of any further restrictions, and warned that Harrogate falling into the highest tier would “finish them off”.

Martin Greenhow, managing director of Mojo bars, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are currently sat on a precipice and we are going to fall. Things are so bad now, more measures would be inconsequential – we may even be better off closed. It is that dire. But we don’t want to close because we want to keep our staff in employment.”

Closure would be ‘disaster’

Peter Banks, managing director of Rudding Park Hotel and Spa and chair of the Harrogate Hospitality and Tourism Association, said if areas such as Leeds and Newcastle were locked down then it would have an impact on the district.

He said:

Harrogate’s NHS Nightingale has been asked to “mobilise over the next few weeks” to be ready to accept patients.

In a government coronavirus news conference today, NHS England medical director Professor Stephen Powis said the Nightingale hospitals in Harrogate, Manchester and Sunderland were preparing for the next phase.

Prof Powis said: “We are asking them to mobilise to be ready to accept patients if necessary.

“We are asking those in the high risk areas to go into a high state of alert and readiness. We will do that with other Nightingales if necessary.”

Prof Powis also said that there would be regular testing for NHS staff in high-risk areas “even when they don’t have symptoms”.

It comes after rising coronavirus infections levels and ahead of the government’s new three tier lockdown system to be announced later today.

This is a breaking news story. We will update this page when we get more information.

If further restrictions are announced on hospitality, Harrogate bar owners have warned they could “finish us off”.

Bars and restaurants across the country are currently under a 10pm curfew in an attempt to deal with the rise of coronavirus cases.

Harrogate hospitality owners say any further restrictions would be hugely damaging to the industry – and the effects of the curfew have already impacted trade immensely.

A full closure in hotspot areas and a limit on household mixing are speculated to be announced today.

Martin Greenhow, managing director of MOJO bars, said:

“Hospitality has been hit with a sledgehammer. We are currently taking 20% of what we were pre-covid. We were just about managing before the curfew but now we have lost 60% of our trading hours.

“We are currently sat on a precipice and we are going to fall. Things are so bad now, more measures would be inconsequential – we may even be better off closed. It is that dire. But we don’t want to close because we want to keep our staff in employment.”

Read more:

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Hales Bar is the oldest bar in Harrogate and previously relied heavily on the tourist trade. Owner Amanda Wilkinson said:

“We aren’t open Monday to Wednesday because I just don’t think it’s financially viable. If they close us in the evening at 6pm we will have to close temporarily because we don’t do a lot of daytime trade. How long we survive this all depends on pub landlords and if they continue to charge rents of businesses that aren’t operating.

“If we do close temporarily, we are talking about six months. This could finish us off.”

On Friday, the Chancellor announced an extension to his job support scheme with the government paying two-thirds of wages for companies forced to close due to restrictions.

The county was described to be at a at a “tipping point” amid increased infections, by North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum.

The continual rise in cases within Harrogate and its surrounding areas has forced council leaders to call for the public follow the guidelines in an effort to avoid the restrictions placed on nearby cities such as Leeds.

A further 42 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the Harrogate district, according to the latest Public Health England figures.

It takes the total number of cases in the district since the start of the pandemic to 1,412.

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Earlier this week, Harrogate Borough Council was allocated £57,951 as part of government attempts to enforce coronavirus restrictions.

The government has awarded £60 million to councils and police forces across the country.

North Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has been allocated £291,987 as part of the deal.

Councils are expected to use the money for compliance and enforcement, such as recruiting covid marshals, carrying out inspections, issuing fines and closing premises in the case of non-compliance.

Although covid marshals will not have any enforcement powers, government guidance says they should “engage, explain and encourage best practice and national covid secure guidance”.

At the height of the coronavirus crisis, Helen Flynn, co-chair of Nidderdale Plus, vowed that nobody in Nidderdale or the Washburn Valley would go without help.

The community hub based in Pateley Bridge has been playing a key administrative role in marshalling an army of volunteers.

Among the 600 people to come forward was a team from Bewerley Park Outdoor Learning Centre – itself temporarily closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The centre’s instructors Ian Coates and Heather Tuffs, along with trainees Byrony Hart and Rowan Bonney rallied to the call.

Over four months, they walked, cycled and drove thousands of miles, making free deliveries of vital items to people stuck in their homes.

Jenny and Frank Braithwaite, who were among the hundreds of people in Nidderdale to receive home deliveries during the coronavirus lockdown

Help for people in self-isolation continues, but is not as intensive as it was at the outset, when the team worked six days a week.

Over the period, a close working relationship grew between the Bewerley team and the Chandler family, whose Spar Shop, at the foot of Pateley Bridge High Street, became a centre for handling telephone orders and assembling and distributing boxes and bags containing food, drink, prescriptions, pet supplies and other essential items.

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The goods were supplied by the Spar shop and a host of other retailers in the town.

While making her deliveries on a bicycle with a trailer provided by Bewerley Park’s former head, Sam Cook, Heather Tuffs was also collecting stories, messages of thanks, photographs, anecdotes, poems and hand-drawn pictures for a book which she has called Lockdown 2020.

Heather told the Stray Ferret:

“I was inspired by the way in which the Chandlers were going the extra mile to help people and thought it needed to be recorded and recognised that, at a time of need in Nidderdale, they rose to the occasion.”

She added:

“It was also a way for me to say thank you for being able to meet so many lovely people in parts of Nidderdale I’d hadn’t previously been to.”

After hard days of pedal-powered deliveries – some of them involving the steep climb up Greenhow Hill – Heather wrote, designed and published her book, paying for it from donations made by the people who appear in it.

Its 160 pages capture the community’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

Retailers such as Kendall’s and Weatherhead butchers, fishmonger Fish With a Twist, Pateley Bridge Pharmacy, Park View Stores, Dales Market Corner, the Sandwich Box, worked in collaboration with the Chandler Spar Shop, Nidderdale Plus, The Rev Daryl Hall and countless volunteers.

The publication, which includes a touching reference to husband, father and grandfather Colin Chandler, who died in November 2007, came as a complete surprise to the family.

Speaking on behalf of them, Lee Chandler, said:

“We already know that Heather is a very special, kind and caring person and her book, which brings both smiles and tears, is something that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. We’re sure Dad would have been proud.”

As part of this year’s World Mental Health Day, the Harrogate Samaritans is asking the public to look out for one another. This comes after a long six months of social distancing, leaving many people isolated. 

This year’s theme is ‘mental health for all’. 

The charity will be sharing advice today to help spot the signs of someone that is struggling on social media, and asks that you join in the conversation using #WMHD.  

Other resources can be found on the Samaritans website. These supply information on how to help someone having suicidal thoughts, and provide advice on looking after your emotional wellbeing. 

Branch director at Harrogate Samaritans, Liz Wilson said: 

“As the pandemic continues and we face potential new restrictions, we must remember to prioritise our mental health and stay connected with others. The age of social distancing has meant people are having less face to face contact so it can be much harder to spot signs that someone might be struggling.”

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Meanwhile, Yorkshire Water will be marking World Mental Health Day by placing signs at Fewston and Thruscross reservoirs that encourage mindfulness.

The signs include a quote that explains how “mindfulness is about being in the present” and offers an example of a mindfulness exercise for visitors to try.  

A further 35 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the Harrogate district, according to latest Public Health England figures.

It takes the total number of cases in the district since the start of the pandemic to 1,337. The weekly case rate for the district stands at 120.6 per 100,000 population.

Meanwhile, county-wide a further 92 cases were confirmed, taking the total infections in North Yorkshire to 4,753.

It comes as North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, which is a partnership of agencies that tackle emergencies, warned the county is at a “tipping point” amid increased cases earlier this week.

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• Harrogate to get permanent Covid testing site
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Officials from the resilience forum expect Craven to be added to the government’s watchlist today after the district’s weekly case rate stands at 152.3.

Scarborough and Selby were added to the watchlist last month as “areas of concern”, but officials said the case rates in both districts have since decreased.

Dr Lincoln Sargeant, director of public health at North Yorkshire County Council, urged people to stick to the rules in order to keep cases down this weekend.

He said:

“I know that many people are making a concerted effort and I am grateful for their sacrifices but unfortunately not everyone is sticking to the guidance that we know makes the difference.

“This is not about blaming or finger wagging. This is about fighting the virus, supporting our businesses, keeping our schools open and saving lives. I want to be very clear that while many people experience minor symptoms, for some residents who become infected they will sadly not recover. We will see more lives lost and I appeal again for everyone to show real restraint to help avoid that.

“This weekend people may be tempted to get together or meet at pubs and other places in larger groups to socialise. covid-19 thrives on a crowd and is easily transmitted when your guard is down. Please play your part and protect your friends and family.”

A task group designed to come up with a solution for care home visits met for the first time this week amid county-wide restrictions.

North Yorkshire County Council restricted visits to care homes throughout October following an increase in coronavirus cases.

It comes as 12 homes in the Harrogate district have so far reported outbreaks of coronavirus since the start of the second wave of infections.

The group, which is made up of care home managers, residents, family members and dementia experts, met online for the first time and said a flexible approach with risk assessments for individual people was needed.

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Richard Webb, director of adult care at the county council, had promised that the restrictions would be reviewed at the end of the month.

He said the meeting was positive and that the group wanted to find solutions for visiting.

Mr Webb said:

“This was a really positive meeting and members of the task group welcomed the opportunity to tell their personal stories of the hardship and impact in terms of people’s mental well-being of stopping visits.

“Everybody at that meeting also acknowledged the challenges of protecting residents from covid but showed great focus on finding solutions to enable visits if at all possible beyond October.

“My own preference is for regular covid testing for designated visitors. However, given the current capacity issues with the national testing programme, it is difficult to guarantee this approach will be practicable at the present time.”

The authority said that care homes are still encouraged to allow window visits for residents so that relatives can still see their loved ones.

Homes are also being urged to use telephones and other technology to allow residents to contact relatives.