Police urge the public to see in the New Year safely at home

Following the announcement that the City of York and North Yorkshire is to move to Tier 3 Covid restrictions, North Yorkshire Police are urging people to see in the New Year safely at home.

Speaking about the new tier restrictions, Chief Inspector Charlotte Bloxham, silver lead for the force’s Covid response said:

“Obviously today’s announcement of York and North Yorkshire moving to Tier 3 restrictions is not the news we wanted to start a new year with. But with rapidly rising numbers of cases and the emergence of a new strain of the virus, these steps have had to be taken to save lives and protect our health service.

“With the measures being brought in at short notice, I would recommend that members of the public ensure they are aware of the new restrictions and ensure any celebrations they had planned are in line with the new Tier 3 rules.

“As under previous restrictions, under Tier 3 households should not be meeting and mixing indoors. Where people were previously able to meet outside up to a maximum of six, under Tier 3 this is now only possible in certain public locations and people can no longer meet outdoors in private gardens.

“There will also be changes for our hospitality sector with pubs, bars and restaurants either closing their doors or moving to takeaway services only.

“People will still able to travel for work, education, medical or caring reasons, but we all really should be limiting our non-essential travel and staying as close to home as we can.

“As throughout this pandemic, I’m sure that the majority of people will understand why the tighter restrictions have been introduced and will act responsibly to protect the most vulnerable among us.

“Police will continue to follow our now well-established 4Es approach of engaging with the public, explaining the regulations, encouraging adherence and resorting to enforcement where necessary and proportionate. Officers will be patrolling and our resources will be targeted towards those who break the rules and put others at risk.

“To those who continue to ignore the regulations, I hope that today’s announcement acts as a wakeup call for you. If you do choose to disregard the rules, not only will this situation continue and we run the risk of even tighter restrictions, but you also risk picking up a £200 fine and even worse, the virus itself.”