Government may introduce local lockdowns
NEW CENTRE TO ASSESS THE RISK OF COVID-19 AT LOCAL LEVEL
THE lockdown was imposed across the country but the Government’s plan for controlling coronavirus in the future involves limited, local lockdowns where there is a spike in cases.
Workplaces are re-opening this week and some pupils could go back to school as soon as next month.
However, some offices, factories and classrooms could be closed again in specific areas which experience a spike in coronavirus cases.
It marks a change from the strategy in place so far.
The Government introduced the lockdown in England as a whole (with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations choosing to follow suit) and is slowly lifting restrictions across the whole country too.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the Government considered introducing a lockdown first in London and the Midlands, where the virus initially spread fastest, but decided against it.
In the months to come, the approach will be different.
The default position will be to keep the country open for business as much as possible but to stamp down on outbreaks in towns, cities, counties or regions as they occur.
To this end, the Government is creating a new body called the Joint Biosecurity Centre, which will analyse and assess outbreaks of the virus at a community level.
The goal is to contain the virus quickly before it can spread again.
The centre will examine test results and other data to try to form a clear picture of changes in infection rates across the country and to identify local breakouts of coronavirus.
According to the Government’s plan for lifting the lockdown, published on Monday, it will “analyse that data to form a clear picture of changes in infection rates across the country, providing intelligence on both the overall national picture and, critically, potential community level spikes in infection rates.”
The document continues: “It will identify specific actions to address local spikes in infections, in partnership with local agencies – for example, advising Ministers, businesses and local partners to close schools or workplaces where infection rates have spiked to reduce risk of further infection locally.”
Once coronavirus is finally gone from our shores – if that ever happens – the centre could continue operating to deal with “biosecurity threats” in general, including other infectious diseases.
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, and Steve Rotherham, Mayor of Liverpool City Region, this week wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging the Government to publish regional and sub-regional figures for “R” – the rate of coronavirus transmission within the population.
North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll takes a similar view.
He said: “Clearly the Government wants to ease restrictions as soon as they can. If they want people to ‘stay alert’ that means sharing information.
“Letting us know the R-number on a regional and sub-regional basis would help us work with our businesses and public services to keep people safe.
“Better information leads to better decisions.
“That also means giving us the levers to do something about it.
“Economic recovery and public safety are inseparable. We have to avoid a second spike in infections. Giving regional mayors the tools and funding to restart regional economies when it is safe is the right approach.”
Asked about regional statistics for R, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “I have not seen any regional figures.
“The Office for National Statistics are carrying out what is now a continuous piece of work, surveying the population to see how many people might be infected at any given time.
“The latest Office for National Statistics survey only involved 7,087 people nationwide.
“While this might be enough to give us some idea of the national situation, this is not a survey which would allow us to identify a problem in Gateshead or Sunderland.”
The survey found between April 26 and May 8, 0.24% of the population tested positive for coronavirus.
It is thought 136,000 people nationwide are infected.
So the first stage of introducing a more localised version of the lockdown is to improve the local data available. Of course, the Government is still able to re-impose lockdown restrictions across the whole of England if it chooses to do so – but that is something it clearly hopes to avoid.