My colleague Helen Pidd has been reporting from Hull in the UK. Gipsyville west of Hull, has reported 1,129.5 infections per 100,000 people in the last week.
The ward of Newington and Gipsyville is one of the most deprived in England. In 2015, 18% of households were living in fuel poverty, compared with the England average of 11%, and 31% of dependent children were classed as living in child poverty, compared with the England average of 17%.
Helen Pidd reports:
The sign on the door at the One Stop Shop on Hessle Road is clear that face masks are required, but many customers ignore it. “Half of them don’t wear masks. There’s no point getting stressed about it,” said Andrew Sanderson, one of the cashiers, on his break.
Hull is currently the UK’s Covid hotspot, with an infection rate of 776.4 per 100,000 people, nearly triple England’s average. But in Gipsyville, a suburb to the west of the city, there were the equivalent of 1,129.5 infections per 100,000 people in the last seven days.
“There’s no sense people are limiting their shopping trips,” said Jean-Luc Sinclair, another One-Stop worker. “During the first lockdown people would queue patiently outside but now people just barge in.”
Customers come in several times a day to buy non-essential items, said Sanderson: “The bookies are closed so people are buying so many scratch cards. They buy one, go outside, scratch it, come in to claim the cash and buy another.” A few doors down, on the shutters of Coral, a betting shop, someone has graffitied: “Spread lov not Covid.”
