Lockdowns and local knowhow

Change of approach is required

IF THE country is to successfully suppress the spread of Covid-19, and avoid another national lockdown that would, in all likelihood, have a catastrophic impact on the economy, then local knowledge – and testing

– is going to be even more important.

This much is clear as Calderdale Council, which covers Halifax and surrounding areas, becomes the second authority to set up its own contact-tracing service in order to harness sufficient intelligence so that sporadic outbreaks can be contained.

Exactly a week after the Government imposed new lockdown rules on large parts of the North, including Calderdale, Kirklees and Bradford, with virtually no warning, it is clear, as the CBI sets out with its sixpoint action plan, that the country’s approach needs to be refined.

Not only does there need to be clearer communication of the steps required when key decisions are taken, and sufficient notice given to enable families and businesses to make contingency arrangements, but public health experts need streetby-street intelligence on Covid’s prevalence when spikes do occur.

After all, postcode-led data will negate the need for restrictions to continue to be applied, for example, to the whole of Bradford when two-thirds of the council’s jurisdiction is rural and the risk in more remote communities minimal compared to more densely populated areas.

This is just one example. There are countless others. Yet, while the Government had to impose a national lockdown, a more nuanced and localised approach is now needed to control Covid-19 and protect the most vulnerable. As such, it is even more paramount that local and regional public health officials come to the fore and, at the same time, utilise their local knowledge – insight that will be even more critical when schools are expected to fully reopen next month.