Covid: Row over regional rules 'damaging to public health', scientist warns

The row over England's three-tier regional Covid restrictions is 'very damaging to public health', a scientist advising the government has warned. Talks between Westminster and local leaders over moving Greater Manchester and Lancashire to the toughest tier of rules are due to resume later. Manchester's Labour mayor said northern England had been treated with contempt. But Dr Jeremy Farrar warned making it a north-south or party political issue was 'a very dangerous route'. The Wellcome Trust director, who also sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told the BBC's Newscast podcast countries that had controlled the virus well so far - including South Korea and New Zealand - had a 'national consensus about the way forward'.