Entire towns face threat of lockdown if infections spike

SCHOOLS, hospitals, offices and even housing estates in England will be subject to ‘local lockdowns’ under Government plans to contain flareups of the virus.

Ministers believe the proposals will enable them to nip small-scale outbreaks in the bud without having to immobilise the entire country.

The lockdowns could also be applied to care homes and residential areas, and families and staff affected would be told to self-isolate for 14 days.

The proposals will form a key part of the NHS test-and-trace strategy, the details of which will be announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock later today.

Mr Hancock said: ‘We are going to hunt down this virus wherever we find it. So far that’s meant a national lockdown, and now we can target that much more.

‘NHS Test and Trace will help us move from a national lockdown to local lockdowns where there are flare-ups.

‘So if there is a local flare-up, we will send in a team to work with local public health officials, who will act.

‘This will help us control the virus while carefully and safely lifting the lockdown nationally.’

Sources confirmed that schools, hospitals, care homes and offices affected by the lockdowns would be temporarily closed if necessary. In the case of hospitals, officials would aim to keep some departments open if they were unaffected by the outbreak to ensure minimal disruption to patients.

The test-and-trace strategy will see officials aiming to test as many patients as possible and then trace the spread of the virus whilst identifying local outbreaks.

In March, Public Health England suggested regional lockdowns could be applied to towns and cities if they were badly affected by the virus.

But this is the first time ministers have confirmed they would enforce them on schools, hospitals or workplaces as part of a more targeted approach.

It comes amid concerns about small scale spikes in Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset, which may have been linked to VE Day celebrations two weeks ago.

Another flare-up has been identified in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, close to the Lake District, which locals have blamed on people flouting social distancing rules by congregating in large groups.