Mayor: Covid cases are falling
MAYOR SAYS FALL IN CASES SHOWS RULES THERE ‘FOR GOOD REASON’
ANDY Burnham says the coronavirus restrictions in Greater Manchester are working - and that infection figures are starting to ‘move in the right direction.’
The mayor’s intervention comes as infection rates continue to fall across the region.
The latest statistics for Oldham, which became the town with the highest infection rate in the country, show rates falling from 71.7 to 63.7 per 100,000 people.
It comes as tighter restrictions were imposed in the borough, limiting social contact even further.
In the week ending August 19, there were 820 cases of Covid-19 across Greater Manchester, the lowest sevenday total since August 2.
The infection rate across nine out of the ten boroughs is continuing to fall.
“I think we are beginning to see the numbers move in the right direction and that includes Oldham, which saw a noticeable fall in the number of cases this week, and we have begun to see falls in other Greater Manchester boroughs as well,” Mr Burnham told the BBC.
“We had the restrictions introduced about three weeks ago and I would say we have begun to see these restrictions are now working, so fingers crossed we can see more boroughs released from these measures
Fingers crossed we can see more boroughs released from these measures soon Mayor Andy Burnham
soon. But on the whole we think it was right to put these restrictions in and hopefully people can see now they were put in for a good reason.”
At the end of last month, the government announced that residents across Greater Manchester would not be able to meet people from different households indoors. Under the rules people can still go to pubs or restaurants, but only with members of their household or support bubble.
After concerns about increasing rates in Oldham, people across the town are no longer able to meet with members of other households anywhere, even outside in public places such as parks.