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Newspapers say sorry for publishing wrong local coronavirus alert levels

A regional publisher has apologised after the wrong local coronavirus alert level was published in three of its newspapers.

Newsquest has said sorry for the “human administrative error” which saw the incorrect government advertisement appear in the Bradford Telegraph & Argus, Hexham Courant and Ilkley Gazette.

The adverts wrongly stated the alert levels for the area the papers serve was medium, rather than high, in all three cases.

The error appeared in Wednesday’s Telegraph & Argus, and last week’s editions of the Courant and the Gazette.

The correct government advertisement featuring information for 'high' alert areas

The correct government advertisement featuring information for ‘high’ alert areas

Apologies have since been run by all three titles, which have also published stories online featuring the correct Covid-19 alert level information.

David Coates, managing director for Newsquest (North), said on Friday: “A small number of our local titles in the North of England this week published incorrect advertisements on behalf of the government information campaign about Covid alert levels.

“Unfortunately human error in Newsquest’s booking process led to us publishing advertisements suggesting that a Medium alert level applied when in fact the level should have been High.

“We would like to apologise for any confusion caused by this error.

“We are running a story on each of our websites to ensure that the correct Covid alert level information is communicated to the relevant local communities.”

You can read all our coronavirus-related stories here.