Portsmouth responsible for Isle of Wight's jump in Covid-19 cases says MP

Isle of Wight MP Bob Seeley has said ‘folks travelling to and from’ Portsmouth are the reason cases on the island have increased 10-fold in less than a month and dismissed reports that the rise in cases had been caused by people visiting their second homes.

Mr Seeley said: ‘Whilst small numbers may have come, the Covid data shows that areas with second homes have had average or, more generally, below average Covid rates.

‘The sad truth is that we were in close proximity to an area, Portsmouth, that appears to have had early cases of the ‘mutant’ strain when we were still in Tier 1.

‘It was probably brought here, not by second home owners from west London going to Seaview or Bembridge, but by folks travelling to and from the mainland for perfectly valid reasons. Once this was identified, the Government moved quickly.’

The area had seen one of the lowest rates in the country and was in Tier 1 before cases increased rapidly before Christmas and the island was placed into Tier 4 before national lockdown.

The Isle of Wight’s seven-day rate of new cases per 100,000 people was 104.4 on December 19. By January 7, the island measured had a case rate of 1,108.1.

Central Southsea ward Councillor George Fielding said now ‘is not the time for a blame games’.

He told The News: ‘Mr Seely would know only too well the consequences of breaking lockdown rules or flexing the restrictions when it comes to compliance.

‘Now is not the time for the blame games. The most important thing right now is that people stay at home and follow the rules that we have got.’

SEE ALSO: Pompey Pensioners' chair backs campaign calling on government to use pharmacies for Covid-19 vaccine roll out

Ferry service Wightlink has revised its Portsmouth to Fishbourne route which now only runs every two hours for freight, key workers and those permitted to travel under the latest regulations.

It suspended its FastCat foot passenger route between Portsmouth Harbour and Ryde Pier Head after Christmas Eve due to a lack of customers using the service.

Hovertravel is running a first come, first served service for those permitted to travel.

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