A CALL has been made for residents in Darlington to “double down” on efforts to keep the spread of covid under control.

Darlington councillor Kevin Nicholson said there should be no complacency in the town after new restrictions were announced for elsewhere in the region.

Middlesbrough and Hartlepool are the latest places to have rules preventing different households from meeting indoors, joining County Durham, Gateshead, Sunderland, Newcastle, North and South Tyneside and Northumberland.

It leaves Darlington, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton as the only areas in the North-East where mixing between households is allowed, providing no more than six people are present.

Councillor Kevin Nicholson, cabinet member for health and housing, said: “As you may have seen in the news today, the Government has announced tighter local lockdown restrictions for Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.

“Darlington is not included in these new measures. Residents of the borough should continue to follow the national social distancing restrictions, including the Rule of Six.

“The fact that we have not been included in tighter restrictions at this time should not be a cause of complacency.

“Darlington is seeing a rise in the rate of cases of Covid-19 but our numbers are not as high as most other local authorities in the region.

“It’s more important than ever that our residents double down on efforts to keep Darlington on track – we’ve seen in other areas that the situation can change for the worse very quickly.

“Our response must reflect the data and must be proportionate. We are monitoring the situation very closely and we will not hesitate to take action should the data reflect that. We will do what is necessary to protect our borough.”

Darlington MP Peter Gibson said: "Today extra lockdown measures against social mixing, care home visits, attending sporting events and all but essential travel has been announced for Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.

"Darlington remains unaffected by these additional restrictions but we remain under close watch. 

"We have worked hard to keep things under control here, we have seen some increases in infections in Darlington but not at a level that would mean we have to go into extra restrictions yet. 

"As our economy is only just recovering, we need to avoid lockdown in Darlington, it is all of our control. I want us to avoid lockdown in our town and I pay tribute to everyone who has worked so hard to keep us safe."