Plan to tackle local flare-ups when tracing system starts
LOCAL lockdowns will feature in the next phase of the coronavirus battle.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS test-and-trace system – due to begin next week – would mean some districts would be told to act if there was a sudden spike of cases in the area.
He said: “We will have local lockdowns in future where there are flare-ups and we have a system we are putting in place with a combination of Public Health England and the new joint bio-security centre, along with the local directors of public health who play an absolutely crucial role in the decision-making in the system to make sure if there is a local flare-up there is a local lockdown.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock defended asking the public to self-isolate in the test and trace programme despite the furore surrounding the actions of Boris Johnson’s special advisor Dominic Cummings.
Mr Hancock told the Downing Street briefing: “They’re not doing it for me, people are doing this for their loved ones.
“If you’re phoned up and asked to self-isolate even though you’re perfectly healthy because you’ve been in close contact with somebody who’s tested positive, then it’s your civic duty to then self-isolate, for yourself, for your community, for your family, and we all need to come together to do this.”
But, in a response to a question from a member of the public, he promised to look at fines issued to parents for breaking official lockdown rules where childcare was involved – the main crux of the reason put forward by Mr Cummings for his journey from London to Durham when
We will have local lockdowns in future where there are flare-ups
Matt Hancock
his wife was showing symptoms. He said it was ‘perfectly reasonable to take away that question’ and he would look at it with his Treasury colleagues. Mr Hancock also announced a new trial for selected NHS patients of an antiviral drug – Remdesivir. There had already been some promising results, he said, and it can shorten recovery time. He said: “This is probably the biggest step forward in the treatment of coronavirus since the crisis began.”
Mr Hancock said that for the first time since 18 March, there had been no deaths recorded in Northern Ireland in the previous 24 hours.. And he said Office of National Statistics figures showed the overall number of deaths were e the lowest in six weeks.
“The number of deaths is falling,” he said. “We must keep our resolve.”