city won’t be locked down – for now

LANCASHIRE AND MERSEYSIDE FACING EXTRA RESTRICTIONS

GREATER Manchester could escape further Covid-19 restrictions for the time being, the M.E.N. understands, following a high-level review of its measures.

Some senior sources are confident there will be no new restrictions for the next week, although others are more cautious, warning ministers could still change their minds tomorrow.

Yesterday, extra restrictions were announced for much of the North East – including a 10pm bar curfew – after a ‘gold’ meeting of senior ministers and medical advisers in Whitehall.

At the same meeting, they discussed the situation in Greater Manchester and other parts of the country.

It is understood extra restrictions are now expected in parts of Lancashire and Merseyside, but that government has decided to spend some extra time considering proposals put forward by Andy Burnham, which were only received yesterday.

Those proposals included the ability to close non-compliant businesses far more quickly, rather than having to apply to the Secretary of State each time, as well as targeted curfews on individual businesses or those in very localised areas, depending on where public health departments see the virus spreading.

Plans have also been drawn up to deploy hundreds of police community support officers and fire service staff onto door-todoor contact tracing work, as well as a temporary ‘self isolation’ fund to go with it – but ministers have been asked for financial support in order to make that move sustainable in the longer term.

It is understood Government now wants to study Greater Manchester’s proposal before responding to the mayor, in order to understand whether its suggestions will actually have the impact needed.

Several insiders suggest the proposals may not be enough in the long term, but may buy the region more time.

“There shouldn’t be a change in Greater Manchester this week,” said one well-placed senior source.

Another said they believed a week’s grace had been achieved, although that wasn’t certain.

“Do Greater Manchester’s measures go far enough for the Government?” they said.

“I think we’ve got a week, although it’s not a big step for government to say ‘hang on, this has got even worse’. Bolton is such an outlier.”

If Greater Manchester’s current restrictions remain as they are, that would see boroughs such as Tameside under less stringent measures than Oldham or the North East, despite having equivalent or higher infection rates. In the case of the North East, it is understood one of the government’s biggest concerns was the scale of the increase in cases from a ‘standing start’.