North hit by tighter rules on lockdown
Restrictions return to parts of region as transmission rates start to climb
LOCKDOWN RESTRICTIONS were reimposed in parts of Yorkshire last night amid warnings of an “increasing rate of transmission” of coronavirus across the North because of people not abiding by social distancing rules.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that people from different households will not be allowed to meet each other indoors in Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale, as well as parts of Greater Manchester and East Lancashire.
He said the Government was constantly looking at the latest data on the spread of coronavirus and “we’ve seen an increasing rate of transmission in parts of northern England”.
He wrote on social media: “We’ve been working with local leaders across the region, and today I chaired a meeting of the Local Action Gold Committee.
“Based on the data, we decided that in Greater Manchester, parts of West Yorkshire and East Lancashire we need to take immediate action to keep people safe.
“The spread is largely due to households meeting and not abiding to social distancing.
“We take this action with a heavy heart, but we can see increasing rates of Covid across Europe and are determined to do whatever is necessary to keep people safe.”
The announcement came a day after Bradford Council warned that a Leicester-style local lockdown may be imposed on the city due to a rise in the number of new infections.
The Yorkshire Post understands a number of post-industrial cities and towns across the Pennines with dense residential developments are seeing stubbornly high rates of infection.
Earlier, the scale of the suffering
caused by the coronavirus pandemic was laid bare after new figures showed England had the highest levels of excess mortality in Europe across the first half of 2020.
The country experienced the longest continuous period of excess deaths as well as the highest levels, a comparison of 23 European countries by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found.
It came as the Government announced that people who test positive for coronavirus or display symptoms must now selfisolate for 10 days, with Mr Hancock
Households meeting and not abiding to social distancing.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock on the reasons behind the clampdown.
warning of a “second wave starting to roll across Europe”.
The UK’s chief medical officers said yesterday that the period must increase from the current rule of seven days because of the risk individuals may still be able to spread Covid-19.
Yesterday’s excess mortality figures were the first time the ONS has compared rates in different countries to measure the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
By the week ending May 29, England had a relative cumulative age-standardised mortality rate of 7.55 per cent – meaning it was 7.55 per cent higher than the average mortality rate between 2015 and 2019.
Spain ranked second at 6.65 per cent, followed by Scotland (5.11 per cent), Belgium (3.89 per cent) and Wales (2.78 per cent).
Edward Morgan, from the ONS’s health analysis and life events division, said the first half of 2020 saw “extraordinary increases” in mortality rates across Western Europe, when compared with the average over the past five years.
He said excess mortality was geographically widespread and prolonged in the UK, adding: “Combined with the relatively slow downward ‘tail’ of the pandemic in the UK, this meant that, by the end of May, England had seen the highest overall relative excess mortality out of all the European countries compared.”
Asked yesterday if he was ashamed of the findings, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the nation “has had a massive success” in reducing the number of deaths.
During a visit to North Yorkshire, he said: “We mourn every loss of life that we’ve had throughout the coronavirus epidemic. What I would say to them (families of the deceased) is that we really owe it to them to continue our work in driving the virus down.”