Local lockdown not on the cards in Kirklees

HEALTH CHIEFS AREN’T PLANNING TO TAKE ACTION AS BOROUGH INFECTION RATES FOUR-TIMES LESS THAN LEICESTER

HEALTH chiefs in Kirklees say a localised lockdown is not being planned as Leicester’s infections are four times higher than in the borough.

Rachel Spencer-Henshall, the council’s Strategic Director for Public Health, was speaking as a second localised coronavirus outbreak was reported at the Dura Beds factory in Batley.

However she said local infection rates had NOT risen.

That is despite data showing cases in Huddersfield are more than 10 times higher than previously reported.

New Covid-19 rates published by Public Health

England show 30.3 cases per 100,000 people in Kirklees in the week to June 21.

That would be the equivalent of 133 people in the area testing positive in that week.

Previously published figures suggested nine cases had been found in the area during that time.

The rate in Calderdale was 12.4 cases per 100,000. That would be the equivalent of 26 cases, rather than the two that has been previously reported.

The new figures are based on people being tested both through Pillar 1 (in hospitals) and Pillar 2 (through drive-through test centres and swabs sent by post).

Until yesterday, only Pillar 1 figures have been published at a local level.

The figures show Leicester had the highest rate of cases in the UK, at 140.2 per 100,000 people - around 497 new cases.

The previously released Pillar 1 data had suggested just 33 cases in the city.

With Leicester going back into lockdown this week, local health officials have been pushing for the gov