The North East was already a Covid-19 blackspot even before the return of our five universities; you are never very far from one here.
At least three of them, including Northumbria, admit quite heavily from their localities, with little or none of the Town and Gown split to which Oxbridge politicians might be accustomed.
A lot of Northumbria's students live at home, with some of those homes an hour or more away. That may be rarer at Sunderland, but it is also quite routine at Teesside.
Of the other two, Newcastle is in a major city centre, while Durham has no campus, being wholly enmeshed in a small and self-contained cathedral city, the population of which doubles during termtime.
The entire country is going back into lockdown. But the North East ought already to be there. It can only be a matter of days now.
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