Nus Ghani has urged the government not to place Sussex into Tier 3 ahead of the review.
The Wealden MP pleaded with health secretary Matt Hanock to keep her area out of the highest level of restrictions and asked for vaccinations to be easily accessible locally for residents.
There are fears East Sussex could be placed into Tier 3 when the government review the new system formally for the first time tomorrow (December 16) due to the dramatic increase in cases in places like Hastings.
Following yesterday's surprise announcement that London and parts of Hertfordshire and Essex were being placed into Tier 3, Nus is urging the government to treat East Sussex the same by looking at areas as districts instead of the whole county.
Hastings' infection rate is currently 396.1 per 100,000 people for the seven days to December 10, with 367 cases recorded in this week.
Only four boroughs in London have higher infection rates than Hastings, despite the city being placed into Tier 3 yesterday.
Ms Ghani wants the government to consider Wealden separately, citing its lower infection rate as a reason the area should not go into Tier 3 after the government treated areas is districts.
Latest data for the seven days to December 10 shows Wealden's infection rate to be 136.2 per 100,000 people compared to 115.2 the week before.
Despite the increase in infections, this is still lower than England's national average of 173.3 per 100,000 people.
She has also spoken to "distressed and elderly" residents who struggle to travel over an hour to access the vaccine, as it is currently distributed from Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.
As part of her passionate plea to the government, she wants Wealden residents to be able to access the vaccine safely at local practices without having to travel miles into Brighton to receive it, and has been working with the Department of Health and the vaccine taskforce to also deliver the vaccine into Wealden’s care homes.
She said: “Our businesses are on their knees and I am deeply concerned about the impact of ongoing restrictions on them.
Wealden does not have huge increase in cases and the infection rate, and it also scores low on the Government’s five criteria for restrictions.
Therefore, I urged the Health Secretary to ensure that Wealden does not get swept up in tougher restrictions for our neighbouring areas which have experienced spikes in cases, as added restrictions are also having an adverse impact on residents with other health conditions.”
After Nus' speech in parliament yesterday, Matt Hancock confirmed at the dispatch box that he will personally look into Wealden’s data ahead of the tier review and committed to ensuring that vaccinations are rolled out to GPs and communities across Wealden.
This means areas of Sussex could be looked at more locally in tomorrow's review, and Tier decisions could be made for towns and districts rather than entire counties.
You can access the original article here.
