Now Blackburn is the UK’s outbreak capital

Mosque funeral probe as cases outstrip Leicester

BLACKBURN has overtaken Leicester as the country’s Covid capital a week after 250 mourners attended a funeral in breach of virus restrictions, it emerged yesterday.

Despite a ban on gatherings of more than 30 at funerals, at least eight times that many were at the Jamia Ghosia mosque in the Lancashire town last Monday.

The next day the local council imposed restrictions to curb a ‘rising tide’ of cases among the town’s large South Asian community, where it is common for families spanning several generations to live together in terraced houses.

However, yesterday the borough of Blackburn with Darwen overtook Leicester as the town with Britain’s highest infection rate.

From July 11 to 17 it recorded 79.2 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 77.7 cases in Leicester, which remains under the UK’s first local lockdown.

Public Health England said there were 118 cases in the seven days to July 17 compared with 276 in Leicester, which has more than double Blackburn’s population.

Worshippers have been told police are investigating the funeral on July 13, with all who attended asked to self- isolate after the mosque’s imam tested positive.

But Lancashire Police said the funeral was a ‘public health issue’ rather than a criminal matter.

The chairman of the mosque said organisers wrongly believed there was no cap on numbers if hygiene and distancing rules were in place at the funeral prayers, or Janazah.

But angry locals called the actions ‘selfish’ and ‘ignorant’.

Out of 114 cases detected in the fortnight before Blackburn beefed up its rules, 97, or 85 per cent, were from the South Asian community.

In response, almost 150,000 residents across the borough have been told not to allow more than two people from a different household into their home at any one time, rather than an entire family as is permitted elsewhere.

They must cover their faces in ‘all enclosed public spaces’ and bump elbows rather than shake hands or embrace for the next month.

There will also be extra testing, which public health chiefs warned would boost infection figures.

Announcing on Sunday that the mosque was closed for a deep clean, its governing committee urged all mourners to self-isolate for a week as the imam who led the prayer had tested positive, adding: ‘There is a possibility that other attendees may also have been infected at the Janazah prayers.

‘ It is our legal obligation to strongly advise you to isolate yourself for seven days, or attend your local Covid-19 testing station.’

Last month, before socially distanced prayers resumed, it warned worshippers that attending without taking precautions could ‘amount to a death sentence’.

The rise in infections comes as it emerged that NHS contact tracers have reached fewer than half of people who have been in close contact with someone with Covid-19 in Blackburn, compared with seven out of ten nationally.

Blackburn with Darwen council said it was ‘ working with the mosque to establish the full facts’.

Council leader Mohammed Khan said the deaths already caused by the pandemic – including three local imams – ought to give residents ‘a very clear reasoning for limiting funeral and wedding guest numbers to a maximum of 30’.

He added: ‘We are in danger of a local lockdown. Nobody wants this. Protect your families, friends and your community.’

‘Danger of local lockdown’