LOCKDOWN LEICESTER?
Surge in corona cases could make city first to bring back restrictions
LEICESTER is likely to be the first city to be put into a second local lockdown after a surge in coronavirus in some areas with a large ethnic minority population.
Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said there could be ‘a return of lockdown in neighbourhoods’ and work was urgently being carried out to identify precise hotspots and the scale of the problem.
Action is being considered after 658 cases of coronavirus were identified in the Leicester area during the two weeks to June 16 – more than a quarter of the city’s 2,494 cases so far.
According to local councillors, the worst-hit neighbourhoods have a high Asian and ethnic minority population. Confusion about socialdistancing rules have been exacerbated by the large number of residents who don’t speak English, it was claimed yesterday.
Home Secretary Priti Patel confirmed the Government was supporting the local authority to take necessary steps to ‘control the virus’. She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘There will be support going into Leicester and in fact the Health Secretary was in touch with many of us over the weekend explaining some of the measures, the support on testing, resources that will go into the local authority as well.’
Last week it was revealed that five schools in Leicester had been shut due to positive tests.
The surge is not believed to be down to single location spikes – such as ones in meat-processing plants across the country – but due to a spread across mainly sociallydeprived communities. These areas include Evington, Belgrave, Humberstone and Hamilton.
Leicester is one of the most ethnically diverse places in the UK with residents from more than 50 countries. The city has significant Hindu and Muslim populations, and a study based on the 2011 census revealed that one in three residents was born outside the UK.
Councillor Ruma Ali said the virus was spreading in areas dominated by ethnic minorities, including her own ward.
She said: ‘If there is a rise in virus cases then it is likely that we will go into lockdown again.’ Miss Ali said she was awaiting further information from the local authority and health chiefs and expected a meeting today to discuss the issue.
She added that most residents had been ‘very good at following the rules’, but she was concerned Black Lives Matter protests in Leicester attended by thousands of people could have helped the virus spread. ‘I’m not sure that was a good idea. It may have caused a spike in cases.
‘It’s mainly the ethnic minority community that has been affected the most. It has been very hard to follow social distancing.
‘A lot of people live with extended family and in overcrowded homes. A lot of relatives live on the same street and they should still be social distancing.’
In Belgrave, where less than half the population speak English as their first language, there ‘will be an entire street who are very close-knit and they will be sharing food and visiting each other’, Miss Ali said.
Language problems also meant the lockdown rules were not communicated to all residents as well as they should be, she added.
Sir Peter said research was being carried out to work out how to quell the surge.
He tweeted: ‘After weeks of asking, on Thursday we finally got addresses of positive tests from the Government. Working now to analyse if there really is an upturn of cases and if so, where.
‘Only then can we know what may need to be done.’
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said last night: ‘We are supporting the council and local partners in Leicester to help prevent further transmission of the virus.
‘We have deployed four mobile testing sites and made thousands of home testing kits available, to ensure anyone in the area who needs a test can get one.’
‘It may have caused a spike in cases’