Cool cool, one in every 35 students at Northumbria University are already covid-positive, very excited to teach in person at a higher education institution in the same city in two weeks' time, excellent. Can we stop the charade now please @UniofNewcastle?

Newcastle University (who are two weeks behind Northumbria) themselves have 94 students and seven staff members who have tested positive. So overall we have around 800 out of 50,000 students already positive in the city of Newcastle

For context, Newcastle's current rate per 100,000 people is 245. So the rate amongst Newcastle's student population is... 1,600, just 6.5x the general population

Congratulations to Northumbria and Newcastle, who while nobody was looking managed to outdo Manchester for covid cases https://twitter.com/helenpidd/status/1311698597587681283

Hello to all the journalists finally realising 770 is a big number

As per @RobynVinter's tweet yesterday about how editors at nationals seem to have no idea freelancers exist in the north, if you'd been following me you'd have learned about the Northumbria and Newcastle uni covid numbers around 3:20pm rather than now

One of the major issues is that the Northumbria numbers aren't just a concern for Newcastle (the city), but also for Gateshead. One of Northumbria's biggest accommodation blocks is sat on top of a large Tesco which serves all of Gateshead and the wider north east

That Gateshead Tesco is one I was in three hours ago and it was chock-a-block with students from the accommodation above. Worrying.

If you're a journalist on this story (no one has yet asked me to do something on it), the key question you want to be asking @NorthumbriaUni is where the 770 positive students are staying. Afaik (and @IanMearnsMP) can correct me, Gateshead aren't in on @NewcastleCC gold meetings

This accommodation block above a massively well-trafficked supermarket serving two major conurbations is home to 1,000 @NorthumbriaUni students and I'm not 100% sure Gateshead Council has visibility on what proportion of its residents have tested positive

An hour and a half after releasing numbers saying 94 cases had been reported within its student base, Newcastle University's student union sent all students an email advertising "cheeky deals" including 50% extra credits at The Gate, home to pubs and bars. FML.