‘Crude’ city lockdown is not best way to proceed
What we will be saying is we need to find the households with cases and support them in isolating
PUBLIC health bosses in Leicester are to urge the Government to end the city-wide local lockdown this week and replace it with more targeted measures to isolate households where there have been coronavirus cases.
The government is due to carry out its second review of the tighter restrictions it imposed on the city to try to reduce infection rates.
Latest figures show another sharp drop in Leicester’s seven-day coronavirus infection rate.
The city remains second in the country when looking at seven-day infection rates but it has seen a 29 per cent decrease in cases in the week to July 24.
Blackburn with Darwen overtook Leicester when seven-day infection rates were updated last week.
Leicester’s rate has now dropped to 58.6 per 100,000 people. The figure relates to the seven days to July 24.
In the seven days to July 17, the rate was 77.7 per 100,000.
The current rate is less than half of what it was at the end of June, when the seven-day rate of 135 cases per 100,000 people saw Health Secretary Matt Hancock put the city and some surrounding areas into a localised lockdown.
At the time, Leicester accounted for 10 per cent of all positive results in the country and the seven-day rate was three times higher than the next-highest city.
Mr Hancock may still choose to extend the restrictions on travel for a further fortnight, as he did on July 16, when he felt not enough progress had been made in stemming the number of people getting Covid-19.
However, Leicester City Council said it is going to argue for the lifting of the “crude” citywide lockdown and ask that it be allowed to focus its efforts on specific homes, where Public Health England holds data showing someone has been infected, to help people within them isolate for 14 days. City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “We are seeing a reduction in the number of new cases, even with the very much extended testing we are doing.
“It seems like the most significant transmission of the virus is occurring within households, so that is where we believe efforts should be from now on.
“As yet we do not have a meeting in the diary with the Secretary of State but we expect to be able to speak to him.
“When we have that we will be making the case that a crude citywide lockdown is not the best way to proceed. What we will be saying is we need to find the households with cases and support them in isolating so they do not come into contact with anyone else.
“There are some things at a very local level where some people may be prevented from doing some things and that would allow us to move away from a full city-wide lockdown,
“While it is possible to identify 10 per cent of the city where the prevalence of the virus is highest, it can vary from street to street.”
Among the possible support measures being suggested by the council are the temporary moving of people out of overcrowded and cramped accommodation, in which the virus is more likely to spread, and having volunteers go and do shopping so isolated families do not have to leave home.
Since Friday, non-essential shops have been allowed to reopen but pubs, restaurants and hairdressers have had to remain closed.
The Government has said intends to carry out its review Leicester’s lockdown by Saturday.
It is understood the Secretary of State is on holiday, but will return to work on Thursday.
At the last review, on July 16, Mr Hancock spoke in the House of Commons to say the city-wide lockdown would remain and would continue to include Oadby and Wigston, while other neighbourhoods were released.
Now, however, Parliament is in recess and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has not yet said how or when the next announcement will be made.
Nor has it been pinned down on what criteria, or thresholds it will use it of to decide if lockdown will be lifted or continued for a further two weeks.
In all, 208 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Leicester in the week to July 24, compared with 276 new cases identified in the seven days to July 17.
Outside the city, the seven-day infection rate in Leicestershire, which includes the locked-down Oadby and Wigston, is 11 per 100,000 people.
A total of 63 new cases were identified in the county in the week to July 24.
The figures come from the NHS Digital Progression dashboard, which uses data collected from NHS 111 and Public Health England to calculate the seven-day interval infection rate.
The dashboard only breaks down the numbers by upper tier local authority, so specific figures are not available for Oadby and Wigston.
The seven-day rate, rather than the cumulative figure, has been used when justifying decisions on the local lockdown and in discussions on progress made since.