MID-Worcestershire's MP says he is pleased Wychavon has not been as hit as hard as other areas by Covid-19, but urged people to stay safe as lockdown easing continues.

The latest Public Health England (PHE) weekly figures showed that, during the week ending July 12, the area had 5.5 cases per 100,000 people. Although this was up from 1.6 the week before, this figure is relatively low in comparison with other local authorities nationally.

Nigel Huddleston said he was encouraged by the figures, but said it was crucially people still followed Covid-19 guidance.

The MP said: "The Worcestershire MPs have regular calls with Worcestershire County Council and I have regular calls with Wychavon District Council as well, so there has been really good dialogue and flow of information between the layers of government.

"It's good to see numbers have come down (since lockdown), and stayed down.

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"But we have all seen - for example the incident just over the border in Herefordshire - how incidents can occur, spikes can occur.

"We have to make sure we remain vigilant and careful - that's the only way we will keep the numbers down.

"Continuing the habits everyone is into, the social distancing, the washing of hands, it's all important we continue to do that. We don't have the vaccine yet, that is key thing."

Asked about whether he was happy with the speed of lockdown easing, Mr Huddleston said: "It think it has been at the appropriate pace, with the information that has been available.

"We could only have started to ease lockdown when we saw the reduction of the spread of the virus.

"It is also really important we focus not only on lives, but also on livelihoods. The reality is the NHS gets paid for by the taxes from people going to work, businesses operating.

"We have to do that in a sensible manner. We need to make sure we get the right balance.

"Of course shops are opening again, people can go to leisure facilities, play more sport, go on holiday, but it is a very different world from what it was.

"I think people accept that because we have to be careful of not having a second spike."