‘Rates need to halve to get county into Tier 1’
Health boss sets out how to have lowest restrictions
LEICESTERSHIRE’S top public health official has set out what needs to happen to coronavirus infection rates in the county for it to be able to exit the national lockdown into the lowest tier of restrictions.
The month-long lockdown imposed by the government is due to end on December 2, but the county council’s director of public health Mike Sandys said, based on current levels of infection, if it were to cease today it is likely Leicestershire would go into Tier 3 – with the continued closure of much of the hospitality sector.
Mr Sandys has again emphasised the importance of people sticking to the regulations to try to break the chain of infections.
He said: “This time next week we’ll hopefully start seeing the benefit of the first week of the national lockdown.
“To be blunt our figure is about 300 (cases per 100,000 people) and if we were heading out of lockdown today that is Tier 3 territory.
“It needs to be lower than that.
“To get into Tier 1 we need to have the county at a rate lower than 150 cases per 100,000 and each individual district below that.”
He added: “Between 150 and 200 we might have a conversat
There is a bit of wilful disobedience and there is forgetting when people are doing the school run or at work and the virus transmits. That has always been the difficulty
ion about whether it is level one or two. “If it’s helpful for people to think about how far we have to go in four weeks flat, we probably need to halve the rates we have at the moment to comfortably come out into level one.”
Mr Sandys said the overall infection rate was not the only figure the Department for
Health and Social Care (DHSC) would consider when selecting post-lockdown tiers of restrictions.
The rate of infections in the over 60s age group would also be a factor.
He added: “It really depends on how people respond to lockdown.
“If people don’t pay heed to the regulations then it won’t work.
“There is a bit of wilful disobedience and there is forgetting when people are doing the school run or at work and the virus transmits.
“That has always been the difficulty.
“We just need people to stay away from each other.”
Leicestershire has been added to the list of areas where mass coronavirus testing will be rolled out.
The county council was one of the first to respond to a request from the government for expressions of interest in joining the scheme, but it was left off the original list of 67 authorities that would be sent testing kits.
After “productive discussions” between Leicestershire County Council and the Department of Health and Social Care, the county will now be part of the trial.
It means that the government will send the council up to 80,000 kits a week as part of its plan to expand testing across the country.