South Tyneside health chief warns of ‘vast’ staff losses to self-isolation

Planned surgery could be cancelled if cases continue to grow exponentially, says director of public health

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The director of public health in the UK's latest Covid hotspot says his biggest anxiety is losing vast swathes" of the local workforce to self-isolation in the coming weeks, particularly in health and social care.

South Tyneside, in the north-east of England, has asked the government for help to step up its vaccination programme after recording a seven-day rolling average rate of 1,308 cases per 100,000 people, the highest in the UK.