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QUESTIONS have been raised about whether local councils have the resources and information they need to impose local lockdowns.
The Government’s plan for ending the coronavirus lockdown is to reduce restrictions nationally and to ask local councils to impose local restrictions in areas where there is a spike in Covid-19 cases.
But local authority leaders, including Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes, have said they still don’t know how the system is meant to work.
Mary Kelly Foy, MP for City of Durham, questioned the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock MP, during an urgent question on the Coronavirus “R” rate and lockdown measures.
The R rate is the speed at which the coronavirus is reproducing. If it is below one than the number of infections will fall, but if is above one then infections will rise exponentially.
Ms Foy asked when Local Authority Directors of Public Health would be given the data they need to act quickly and stop localised transmission of coronavirus.
She asked: “While the R number is one indicator of infection, it is only reliable at a regional level.
“Currently, Directors of Public Health tell me that they are only receiving high level reports, when what they actually need is more localised information, with data relating to the number and location of cases, and when infection occurred. This information is vital to stopping transmission, especially as restrictions are lifted. “Can the Secretary of State tell me by which date this information will be available to local authorities, in order to inform their local outbreak plans?” Matt Hancock responded by saying: “As soon as practical.” Blaydon MP Liz Twist asked: “What local resources and funding will be put in place for local authorities to deal with local lockdowns where they are needed?” Mr Hancock said the Government
Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes
had allocated £300million nationwide.
Speaking to The Chronicle last week, Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes complained that local councils were not getting the “clear, coherent and consistent direction” needed from ministers.
He added: “The fragmented nature of the Government’s approach was evident during the first weeks of lockdown, when the lack of delivery of essential PPE left some services in Newcastle on the brink of closure.
“If the council had not stepped in and provided additional PPE the results could have been catastrophic.
“We are seeing much of the same with the work of the Test, Track and Trace programme. The success of these pilots will help shape the easing of lockdown and we have been asked to deliver this locally.
We don’t know what the system looks like, we don’t how much it is going to cost
“However, we don’t know what the system looks like, we don’t how much it is going to cost and we don’t know what money we’re getting.”