A third of UK now under stricter Covid-19 rules
LIVERPOOL, Warrington, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough have become the latest areas subjected to local coronavirus lockdowns – but ministers said there was a “small hope” that progress was being made in slowing the spread of Covid-19 cases.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there were “early signs” that restrictions imposed in the past month were beginning to have an impact. However, in announcing the new restrictions, he said the second peak in coronavirus infections was “highly localised” and in some areas it was “spreading fast”.
In Liverpool, there are 268 cases per 100,000 people, he told MPs, so action was needed.
The measures announced for the Liverpool city region, Warrington, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough follow similar restrictions imposed in the North East earlier this week.
Downing Street said they would come into force on Saturday morning at one minute past midnight.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for a “rapid review” of the local lockdown strategy, and he also urged the Government to consider whether the 10pm curfew should stay.
In a Commons statement, Mr Hancock said: “We recommend against all social mixing between people in different households.
“We will bring in regulations, as we have in the North East, to prevent in law social mixing between people in different households in all settings, except outdoor public spaces like parks and outdoor hospitality.
“We also recommend that people should not attend professional or amateur sporting events as spectators in the areas that are affected.
“We recommend that people only visit care homes in exceptional circumstances, and there will be guidance against all but essential travel – essential travel, of course, includes going to work or school.”
Mr Hancock said local leaders had been consulted and there will be a £7 million package of support for the councils affected, which the Labour mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson described as “nowhere near enough”.
He added that stricter measures in Bolton would be eased to be in line with the rest of Greater Manchester, following pleas to allow hospitality venues to open under the same conditions as the rest of the region, such as table service and a 10pm curfew.
As local lockdowns come into force in Denbighshire, Flintshire, Conwy and Wrexham in North Wales from last night, more than a third of the UK population will be subject to some form of extra controls.
Mr Hancock highlighted the findings of the React study, which he said offered some indication measures already taken in hot-spots were working. “Today’s React study from Imperial College suggests that whilst the R number [the average number of people infected by someone with coronavirus] remains above one, there are early signs that it may be falling,” he said.
“We must not let up, but people everywhere can take some small hope that our efforts together may be beginning to work – I put it no stronger than that, cases are still rising.”
Mr Hancock also defended the 10pm curfew in pubs and restaurants but promised to do “whatever we can” to support the hospitality industry.
“I know that these measures are hard and they are yet another sacrifice after a year of so many sacrifices already, but there are some signs that what we are doing together to respond to these awful circumstances is starting to work,” he said.
But Sir Keir said ministers must “massively improve” lockdown communication and said only one out of 50 areas have successfully been freed of the restrictions. He said: “I think we need a rapid review of the local lockdowns because what we are seeing is that, in some areas in lockdown, the infection rates are going up, not down.”