Reported Covid cases continue to rise across the North East, with local authorities now reporting case levels last seen in mid-February.
Across the North East, the rate of Covid remains high, with pockets around Ashington and Gosforth currently seeing spikes in cases, likely due to the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron.
This comes as Newcastle City Council has "stepped down" it's Covid alert level amid indications that the rises are beginning to level off, though council bosses have warned that it remains vital to be vigilant and monitor the virus' spread closely.
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Outgoing council leader Coun Nick Forbes told a meeting of its City Futures board this week: "It's important to note that stepping the alert level back down to green doesn't give the sign that everything is back to normal. Our vigilance and preparation for further waves need to be as sharp as ever."
Though rates of Covid cases have increased over the last week, experts like Prof Eugene Milne - the Newcastle director of public health - have spoken of how these rises have started to "level off", as have hospital admissions.
Nationally, Government ministers have faced criticism over the implementation of the "Living with Covid" strategy and plans to scrap much of the Covid surveillance along with free testing - which will end on April 1.
Funding is also being withdrawn from the Zoe Covid symptom study, as well as the Siren and Vivaldi studies which monitor infections in health workers and care homes.
And scientists announced last week that the 'React' study will be scrapped at the end of March, with no further data will be collected beyond that point. The study randomly tests around 150,000 people across England every month to see how many are infected with Covid.
The local authority in our region with the highest Covid rate per 100,000 people over the seven days to March 11 was Northumberland , where it was 503.4. That was based on 1,630 cases across the county and is up 47.8% on a week earlier.
In North Tyneside the figure is 451, which is only up a comparably low 28.7% in a week, while Newcastle 's rate on that date was 447.5. That was up a huge 62.9% on a week earlier, and based on 1,332 cases.
However, in more recent data discussed at Newcastle's City Futures board meeting, Prof Milne said the rate had crept up further to 484 by March 16 and begun to stabilise.
In County Durham the rate also increased by 63% to March 11, hitting 363.5 per 100,000 people, and in Sunderland it was 349.8.
Gateshead 's equivalent figure is 325.8, while South Tyneside is currently the borough with the lowest incidence of Covid-19 per person, with just 276.6 cases per 100,000 people.
Around the region, hospitalisations remain largely stable - and substantially below the peaks seen due to Omicron over January and February this year.
In Newcastle's hospitals, there were 58 patients who were Covid-19 positive on March 8, while there were 84 on the wards in South Tyneside and Sunderland, around 40 in County Durham and Darlington, 64 at Northumbria Healthcare and 17 in Gateshead.
The North East areas with the highest Covid-19 rates per 100,000 people over the seven days to March 11:
Ashington West - 68 new cases and a rolling rate of 912.2
North Gosforth - 93 new cases and a rolling rate of 912.7
Ashington South - 43 new cases and a rolling rate of 876.8
South Gosforth - 83 new cases and a rolling rate of 868.8
Coxlodge & West Gosforth - 90 new cases and a rolling rate of 866.5
Tynemouth West - 48 new cases and a rolling rate of 824.3
Alnwick - 52 new cases and a rolling rate of 765.3
Kingston Park & Dinnington - 98 new cases and a rolling rate of 708.7
Percy Main - 55 new cases and a rolling rate of 700.6
Bedlington Town - 58 new cases and a rolling rate of 677.3
