‘Levelling up’ agenda more urgent than ever as Covid hits North hardest: The Yorkshire Post says

Analysis of national statistics by the Northern Health Science Alliance has found that deprived areas in the North are being hit with high rates of Covid deaths, higher death rates from all causes and particularly suffering from greater rates of increases in unemployment.

There are now calls in the short-term for Northern hotspots for the virus to be prioritised as Covid antibody testing is rolled out.

But there are also longer term issues at stake.

Economic and health issues are deeply interconnected; as the researchers point out –unemployment rates have a proven link to mental health and suicide figures and are a strong indicator of future health inequalities.

While the very worst of the pandemic may hopefully now be behind the country, the long-term effects the lockdown steps necessary to combat it have had may prove deadly in their own ways.

When Boris Johnson won a convincing majority in December’s General Election, partly on the basis of his promise that his remade Conservative party would ‘level up’ the regions, he could not have imagined the circumstances that would make doing so more important than ever before just six months later.

But to try and prevent terrible long-term problems and a further widening of the North-South divide, public health, economic and social measures will be urgently needed to prioritise the areas most affected by this pandemic.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor