YOU MUST ALL SUFFER TOGETHER
Thousands in low infection areas CAN’T split from virus hotspot tiers, insists Hancock
tENS of thousands of residents in low-infection towns and villages had their hopes of ‘decoupling’ from the tiers of surrounding coronavirus hotspots dashed yesterday.
in a letter to tory MPs, Matt hancock said that ‘narrow carve-outs’ of areas with lower rates of infection often leads to them ‘catching up’ or ‘overtaking’ areas with a higher prevalence of Covid.
it comes ahead of a review of the tier system on wednesday. the health Secretary’s comments are set to disappoint tory MPs in areas that come under stringent tier two or three restrictions because of high infection rates elsewhere in their county.
they will also dismay several London boroughs that were hoping to remain in tier two, with the whole of the capital now almost certain to enter tier three.
Boris Johnson had raised hopes that wednesday’s review would be done on what he described as a more ‘granular’ basis than a fortnight ago, suggesting some areas could be spared.
But health leaders are continuing to pile on pressure against easing tier restrictions, warning of the ‘risk of a third wave’ when the NhS is at its busiest. Officials last night confirmed that London will be treated ‘as a whole’ rather than on a borough-by-borough basis, indicating its nine million residents will soon be plunged into the strictest measures.
Latest figures show the capital’s infection rates have climbed to an average of 224 new cases per 100,000 people, rising in 21 of the 32 boroughs. however, rates in Greater Manchester dropped below the UK average to 151.3 per 100,000 people, for the week ending December 8.
the turnaround has led Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to call for the two cities’ positions to be reversed, for the sake of ‘equal and fair treatment’.
he said: ‘if London and Manchester don’t move, it would tell me it’s not based on the evidence. i don’t wish anything on London, but we have to have equal and fair treatment here.’
Business leaders have warned shutting the capital down before Christmas will devastate its economy, forcing many pubs and restaurants to close.
it comes as the number of daily deaths from Covid fell to 144 yesterday, down from 231 a week ago.
Only a handful of areas are expected to move down the tiers during the first review since the second lockdown, including Lincolnshire and North Somerset.
Of the 315 local areas in England, 179 have experienced a rise in case rates, 135 have seen a fall, and one is unchanged.
Swale in Kent has the highest rate in England, with the equivalent of 630.3 cases per 100,000 people, followed by Medway, at a rate of 599.5.
Basildon in Essex also has some of the highest rates, having increased from 333.9 to 508.5 cases per 100,000.
Local leaders have argued that there are strong cases for splitting counties, with widespread variations in case numbers.
Sir Bernard Jenkin, tory MP for harwich and North Essex, said it would be ‘ludicrous’ to place his constituency in tier three when it had far fewer cases than other
‘I don’t think this is sensible’
parts of the county bordering London. He argued that the city of Leicester had been successfully locked down while Leicestershire remained free of restrictions, proving it ‘is possible’.
He told Times radio: ‘Schools are going to close next week because it’s the school holidays – by far the biggest spreaders of the virus are the education settings. Hospitality is a relatively low risk.
‘The one thing that really, really isn’t Tier Three is hospitality. I don’t think this is sensible, not in the run-up to Christmas.’ Any new restrictions imposed this week will only last six days before they are then relaxed over the Christmas period.
Between December 23 and 27, the rules will pause to allow families to form ‘Christmas bubbles’ with up to three households.
This has stoked fears among experts of a third wave, heaping more pressure on the NHS at its busiest time of year.
Yesterday NHS Providers, which represents the 216 NHS acute, ambulance, community and mental health trusts in England, wrote a message of warning to the Prime Minister. While stopping short of backing calling off Christmas celebrations, it said it was ‘vital’ the public understood the risks of extra social contact during the festive period.
Sarah Gilbert, leader of the Oxford University vaccine team, also warned it could prompt a surge similar to that seen in the US following Thanksgiving celecamera
‘Longer to get back to normal’
brations, with deaths there totalling more than 3,000 a day.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, she said: ‘If we have that kind of thing happening over the Christmas holidays in this country, with very high transmission rates possible in January, it’s going to take so much longer to get things back to normal.
‘Because partly, all the vaccination clinics will be disrupted. It’s not possible to run vaccination clinics when staff are off sick, and there’s a very high transmission rate affecting people’s ability to come to be vaccinated.
‘I think what we do over the next few weeks is really going to have a big impact on how long it’s going to take to get back to normal.’