TALE OF THREE CITIES WAITING TO HEAR IF RESIDENTS FACE HIGHER TIERS

LIVERPOOL

Liverpool has seen a dramatic decrease in the infection rate, with cases in the city centre falling by 103 per 100,000 within the past week. Adjacent areas have also seen a sharp decline, with Sefton falling by 115 cases and St Helens down by 145.

This comes after the setting up of mass testing sites, where more than 200,000 people, in a population of just over half a million, have tested for the virus.

It is a stark contrast to mid-october, when the infection rate was 700 cases per 100,000. Soon after that, Liverpool became the first in the country to enter Tier 3 restrictions.

Dr Tom Wingfield of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has suggested the sharp decline in cases may be a continuation of a fall that was already under way before the city entered Tier 3 on Oct 14.

Data covering testing up to Oct 16 show that the total number of cases for the preceding seven days was 2,825, a decrease of 618 cases from the previous week.

Dr Wingfield said: “Infection rates were definitely coming down ... so one explanation for that would be people in Liverpool were doing the right things.”

An increased public awareness of the threat of the virus in Liverpool – highlighted in the case of the city’s mayor Joe Anderson, who lost his elder brother to the virus in October – may have galvanised the public to adhere even more closely to the rules, Dr Wingfield added.

LONDON

Infections rates within certain boroughs have soared over the past week, leading to fears that the whole city could be placed intier 3.

Havering in east London has seen an increase in infection rate of 82 cases per 100,000 from last week with a weekly rate of 354 per 100,000.

The borough’s infection rate is predicted to rise to 461 next week.

Neighbouring areas of Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge experienced similar trends, but other boroughs have either remained static or indeed have seen a decrease in infection rates over the past week.

Cases within the prosperous borough of Richmond upon Thames have fallen in the past week by 19 per 100,000, and Westminster went down by 49 cases.

Dr Bharat Pankhania of the University of Exeter’s Medical School said that socio-economic disparities between boroughs is likely responsible for this contrast.

He said: “Infection rates will rise, without a doubt, where you have got multigenerational households, where you’ve got population density, where you have got a larger community that is interacting with one another.”

Prof Paul Hunter from the University of East Anglia said: “There is a strong increased risk of transmission in poorer areas, higher-density multiple generational occupancy, people in jobs where they can’t stay at home and where they are customer facing.”

LEICESTER

Infection rates have remained consistently high during the pandemic, despite the region being the first to go into local lockdown and enduring some of the strictest Government measures.

The city has experienced a negligible increase of just two cases per 100,000 over the past week with the current weekly infection rate standing at 408 per 100,000.

Areas within Leicestershire have experienced similarly high levels of infections with Blaby at 355 per 100,000 and Oadby and Wigston at 408 per 100,000.

Earlier this year in June while the rest of the UK was looking forward to pubs and restaurants reopening on July 4, Leicester was already sliding back into lockdown. At the time, Leicester had an infection rate of 135 per 100,000 people.

Despite the city’s high infection rate, it was only placed into Tier 2 on Oct 14, a move which some experts may explain why there has been no change in its current case rate.

The greater proportion of “high risk” jobs within the city including “cramped working conditions in factories” is also a contributing factor to the city’s case rate, said Prof Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia.

Prof Ivan Browne, the city’s director of public health said: “The virus is spreading when people are meeting up with friends or family. They do not believe they are infectious and are passing it on without realising.”