Here are the latest updates from the North-East and across the country regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.

  • STAFF working for Arriva in Darlington have raised a number of safety concerns after a colleague tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week. Bus drivers based at Arriva's Faverdale depot have alleged safety measures are being ignored, buses are not being cleaned, and that some have faced disciplinary action for trying to enforce rules on face coverings. On Thursday, Arriva confirmed that a staff member at the Darlington depot had tested positive for Covid-19 as it said the company is following government guidelines.
  • THERE has been two confirmed cases of coronavirus in Bishop Auckland College. On a Facebook post the college, based in Woodhouse Lane, said: "Unfortunately we can confirm that there has been two confirmed cases of coronavirus within the college. The cases are unrelated and occurred in different areas of the college. We have taken advice from Public Health England and the appropriate measures have been taken. We continue to strictly enforce all safety measures, including 2m social distancing, one way systems and the compulsory wearing of masks to keep staff and students safe."
  • FOUR people have been arrested in relation to breaches of Covid-19 regulations following a protest in Newcastle on Saturday. As a result of the activity at Monument two men were also issued with fines for not adhering to the rules put in place to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus. The four arrested, one woman aged 70 and four men aged 26, 58 and 59, were taken into police custody.
  • RESULTS of coronavirus tests carried out in an NHS hospital or Public Health England lab cannot be linked with the newly-launched NHS Covid-19 app, officials have admitted. The app, which has been available for download across England and Wales since Thursday, has been hailed by Health Secretary Matt Hancock as an “important step forward” in the fight against the virus. But officials said results from tests done in a Public Health England lab or NHS hospital, and those done as part of the Office for National Statistics’ national surveillance programme, cannot currently be linked with the app. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it is aware of the issue and “urgently working” to resolve it.
  • HUNDREDS of students in Manchester have been told to self-isolate after 127 of them tested positive for coronavirus. About 1,700 students at the Birley campus and Cambridge Halls at Manchester Metropolitan University have been told to stay in their rooms for 14 days, even if they have no symptoms. The rate of Covid-19 spread in Manchester was 185.6 per 100,000 people in the week up to September 22, when 1,026 positive tests were recorded, figures show. This was almost twice the rate of the previous week when the infection rate was 93.2 per 100,000, with 515 cases.
  • THE learning gap between financially disadvantaged and better off pupils in England “has become a gulf”, a leading educator has warned. Oasis Community Learning founder Steve Chalke says recent research suggests disadvantaged children fell further behind during the lockdown than more affluent pupils. The boss of Oasis, which is responsible for 31,500 children at 52 academies across England, has called on the Government to treble the pupil premium funding used to boost the education of the nation’s most disadvantaged pupils. Mr Chalke told the BBC: “Government should respond to the need before it causes irrevocable damage by trebling this funding, at least over the next three years, and focusing it on children living in persistent poverty and facing long-term disadvantage. It is vital that Government makes this move now, to ensure that a generation of children, already disadvantaged before the Covid-19 lockdown but whose situations have deteriorated even further, are not completely abandoned, doomed to spend their lives struggling for opportunities their peers will have ready access to, rather than flourishing.”
  • BORIS Johnson has criticised the lack of joined-up thinking from countries around the world in fighting coronavirus, as he called on leaders to come together. The Prime Minister said the notion of the international community looked “tattered” following the crisis, and warned that “everyone will lose” unless countries work in conjunction to defeat the virus. In a pre-recorded speech played at the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, Mr Johnson said the pandemic had been an “extraordinary force for division”. He added: “We have been up against the same enemy, the same tiny opponent threatening everyone in much the same way. But members of the UN have still waged 193 separate campaigns, as if every country somehow contains a different species of human being.
  • BANS on households mixing have come into force across swathes of northern England amid a warning that the new measures may not be enough to halt the spread of coronavirus. Extra restrictions were introduced at midnight in Wigan, Stockport, Blackpool and Leeds, with residents advised not to meet people outside their household or bubble in any setting. Tougher rules are already in force across large swathes of north-west England, West Yorkshire, the North East and the Midlands, as well as parts of west Scotland.
  • A FURTHER 592 people have tested positive for Covid in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

The Government also said a further 34 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday. This brings the UK total to 41,971

The Government also said that as of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 6,042 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, taking the overall number of cases confirmed to 429,277.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 57,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Here is a breakdown of the latest confirmed cases in the North-East and North Yorkshire:

County Durham: 4,556 was 4,478, an increase of 78

Darlington: 768 was 733, an increase of 35

Gateshead: 2,082 was 2,047, an increase of 35

Hartlepool: 889 was 876, an increase of 13

Middlesbrough: 1,403 was 1,372, an increase of 31

Newcastle: 2,986 was 2,889, an increase of 97

North Tyneside: 1,514 was 1,488, an increase of 26

North Yorkshire: 3,560 was 3,505, an increase of 55

Northumberland: 2,397 was 2,331, an increase of 66

Redcar and Cleveland: 921 was 909, an increase of 12

South Tyneside: 1,742 was 1,709, an increase of 33

Stockton: 1,332 was 1,310, an increase of 22

Sunderland: 2,991 was 2,917, an increase of 74

York: 1,224 was 1,209, an increase of 15

Total increase of 592 cases