Nottingham lockdown: Crowds of people flood streets to dance ahead of tier 3 restrictions
Young people take to the streets in fancy dress ahead of Halloween
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Your support makes all the difference.Crowds of people flooded Nottingham city centre on Thursday night, just hours before the area entered the highest tier of coronavirus restrictions, with some donning fancy dress ahead of Halloween this weekend.
One video showed a large group of people on St James Street near Market Square, chanting and dancing only hours ahead of the city entering tier 3 at 12.01am on Friday.
With Halloween celebration severely curtailed this year, groups of young people in fancy dress were also spotted in town seemingly celebrating two days early, despite a police warning earlier the same day that they would have “no hesitation” in fining people deliberately breaking the rules.
Responding to the scenes on Thursday night, Chief Constable Craig Guildford said: "The vast majority of the Nottinghamshire community has understood the very serious situation the city and county are currently in with infection numbers and hospital admissions increasing on a daily basis.
"It is the case that people are being issued fines for breaching the regulations but more importantly the virus is spreading rapidly throughout the community and people are dying.
"It's important to highlight that this kind of behaviour potentially puts the health of individuals, our officers at risk, and their families too, when they are attending such gatherings. We are very determined to protect the public and will continue to respond quickly to such incidents.
"We have to do all we can to stop the spread of Covid-19 and better protect older and more vulnerable people – as well as helping to reduce pressure on the emergency services and NHS as we move into winter."
He said one man was arrested and several dispersal orders were issued.
Nottinghamshire Police have given four people £10,000 for organising parties with more than 30 attendees in the last week, as well as “numerous” £200 fines to individuals who flouted restrictions.
The restrictions on Nottinghamshire come into force after the county's public health director laid bare the scale of infections burdening hospitals.
The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals across Nottinghamshire is 40 per cent higher than the peak of the first wave of the virus in April, Jonathan Gribbin said.
“Even a well-organised NHS and care system will struggle to cope with that kind of level of increased demand,” Mr Gibbin said.
West Yorkshire is due to enter tier 3 restrictions on Monday, which will take the number of people living under the top level of measures to 11 million.
Thursday’s government figures showed there have been 23,065 more lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, while 280 more people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.
Nottinghamshire Police have been contacted for comment.
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