Maldon District Council has been forced to suspend its garden waste collections due to staff testing positive for Covid-19.

The service will remain suspended for the rest of the week as drivers for the council's contractor, Suez UK, remain off sick with Covid.

A spokesperson for the council said: "Due to driver sickness, including multiple positive cases of Covid-19, we have suspended garden waste collections for the rest of this week.

"If your garden waste was not collected yesterday (Tuesday, 15 March) or was due to be collected this week, please re-present it on your next scheduled collection day.

"We are working quickly to resume normal service so please bear with us."

The changes will only affect residents who have signed up for garden waste collections, as it is a subscription service and not part of the standard refuse and recycling collections.

The announcement comes after it was revealed that Maldon has the highest Covid infection rate in Essex, at 850 cases per 100,000 people, while cases are currently almost doubling every week across the county.

However, health chiefs have said their hospital ICU and death rates are "declining" while the increase in Covid cases is not being shifted into higher deaths or serious infection.

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Dr Maggie Pacini, acting director of public health for Essex, said: "We are going to be responding to a changing situation.

"So that may be if there is a new surge or new variant or it may just be at a local level with local outbreaks.

"But the focus moving forward will be about protecting through testing and treatment."

READ MORE:

- Maldon reports highest Covid cases in Essex as infection rates rise across the county