Hampshire Constabulary has declared a ‘major incident’ as the county struggles to deal with the highest number of confirmed cases in the UK outside of London.
As of 0900 on 19th March, Hampshire had recorded 87 cases of COVID-19 meaning that it is currently one of the worst affected areas in the UK.
Only London has a higher number of cases across all of its 32 boroughs with Southwark alone reporting 82 cases of COVID-19.
The figures only relate to positive tests which have been carried out in hospitals as the government decided to stop community-based testing some time ago.
In a statement, Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney, Chair of the Local Resilience Forum, said:
“As part of our regular review of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum (HIOW LRF) has now declared the Coronavirus outbreak a major incident.
“We have already been providing a multi-agency response for a number of weeks, and the declaration of a major incident simply means we move to the next phase of our well-rehearsed plans.
“This ensures all partners, which includes all the emergency services, can use joint working arrangements to effectively manage, and where possible minimise, the impact of the virus on our population during these unprecedented times”.
The HIOW LRF comprises the public sector partners in Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight.
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Hummm, so all the available Hampshire s’camera units were deployed to assist with this, or is it in anticipation of ‘lock-down’ to get as much income as possible before the roads are emptied?
If the joint response is as effective as the IT system for licensing, with the huge delays its causing the law abiding in Hampshire (& TVP?) we’re in real trouble!