North battles to beat lockdowns
TOWNS and cities across the north are racing to clamp down on a spike in new cases to avoid local lockdowns.
Middlesbrough mayor Andy Preston warned the town is “on the fringe of something serious”, adding: “We need to get a grip. It’s beyond urgent.” The town is sending hit squads into bars and restaurants to check social distancing after 34 cases in three days.
The outbreaks cover a wide range of ages and ethnic groups.
His warning came as South Tyneside was identified as having one of the highest rates of infection in the country.
In Greater Manchester, police visited 263 homes in six weeks to talk to holidaymakers failing to quarantine.
A spike in cases in Whitworth, Lancs, has been linked to a childcare facility.
And in Newcastle, snaps of revellers outside a bar led the city council to warn of “a real threat” of lockdown.
AT least 400 daily deaths involving Covid-19 occurred in care homes at the outbreak’s height, analysis reveals.
There were more than 3,000 during just one week in mid-April.
Residents’ deaths rose five-fold between April 1 and the April 17 peak, when nearly 500 died, a UK-wide review by the PA news agency shows.
All figures are based on the latest official data on death registrations.
Care England’s chief executive Prof Martin Green said: “Unfortunately patients were discharged from hospital without testing and this, compacted with insufficient PPE, created huge challenges for care homes. Routine testing is absolutely essential.”
Oxford University Prof Carl Heneghan said: “The Government should have advised in mid-March that agency staff should work in a single care home and not travel between them.”