Birmingham on the brink of lockdown
BIRMINGHAM is facing a regional lockdown following a surge in cases in the last week.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock met senior officials and ministers yesterday afternoon to discuss the sudden spike in infections in Britain’s second largest city.
No decisions have been made yet on the potential measures or restrictions but sources confirmed that Birmingham was an area of concern that they were watching very closely.
But they stressed that although the cases had risen quickly, the city was still well behind Oldham, Pendle, Manchester and Leicester and other areas of the Midlands and North-West.
The Department of Health will announce any new restrictions today but if they are imposed in Birmingham they will initially involve tighter social distancing measures rather than a full lockdown.
Officials may also opt to simply monitor the situation for a few days and place the city on the national watchlist alongside 30 other cities and boroughs.
A full lockdown, which would involve the closure of non- essential shops and pubs, would be enforced only if rates continued to increase despite stricter social distancing measures.
The latest figures from Public Health England, released on Wednesday, show infections in Birmingham have increased to 30 cases per 100,000 population – up from 22.4 per 100,000 last week.
This is a rise of 34 per cent and although the overall number of infections is still behind other areas, the speed at which they have increased is worrying officials.
Another area of concern is Oldham in Greater Manchester where rates have jumped from 84.3 cases per 100,000 to 105.4 cases per 100,000 in the last week and are now the highest in the country.
Health officials could decide to impose a full lockdown in the town. It is currently subject to guidelines which state families cannot meet up indoors.
Both Birmingham and Oldham were discussed by the Health Secretary yesterday at the Local Action Committee Gold meeting, which was also attended by the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty.
Meanwhile figures yesterday showed the number of cases nationally has slowly crept up since early July when restrictions were eased.
The seven-day average of daily cases is now just above 1,000 a day – up from 546 a day on July 5. But both the number of hospital admissions and deaths are at their lowest levels since March.
Yesterday there were only six deaths recorded in the UK.
Experts say one reason infections are rising while deaths are falling is that many cases are occurring in the young who are flouting social distancing guidelines but are at lower risk of getting ill.
Yesterday a senior academic warned of an imminent second wave. Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, told the Royal Society of Medicine: ‘My bet is that we will get a second wave and the vaccines won’t get here in time. It’s going to be a bumpy winter.’
Last night the leader of Birmingham City Council, Ian Ward, urged the Government to issue ‘clear and simple’ advice as many are confused about what to do.
■ Just 28 per cent of those being tested for the virus in the wider population are receiving their results within 24 hours.
This figure, for the week ending August 12, is a drop from 34 per cent the previous week and 57 per cent for a week in June. The Department of Health blamed the delays on IT problems.