Police officers coping well with Covid restrictions unlocking

POLICE officers are – as things stand – coping well with unlocking after all Covid restrictions were dropped towards the end of July

The force has seen large crowds back at St Mary’s Stadium and Fratton Park and officers have been busy keeping festivals and people enjoying the night time economy safe.

Zoë Wakefield, Hampshire Police Federation Chair, said:  “We’ve had Let’s Rock in Southampton a couple of weeks ago and Victorious. We’ve got the Isle of Wight festival coming up – there’s some quite big music events that we’re policing. Everything seems to be going okay.

“We’ve had a small spike in the number of officers testing positive for Covid-19 but nothing that causes any concern.”

Officers who have tested positive for Covid have only experienced mild symptoms, Zoë added.

Officers were struggling last month, as the number of officers having to isolate meant those left behind were exhausted and overburdened. Zoë said she was relieved that the rules have relaxed now, allowing police officers to get on with their jobs.

She said: “The lack of self-isolation is helping because we did have one week we were up to over 100 officers and staff self-isolating. So that’s much better. We’re down to less than 20 now.”