Covid, first UK local lockdown in Leicester

According to Leicester city council, the latest figures from Public Health England show that 866 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the city in the two weeks.

Globally, the death numbers of Covid-19 has reached half a million. More that 10 million people have tested positive for this virus. And now Leicester is facing the country’s first local lockdown amid a spike in Covid-19 cases. The mayor of Leicester has slammed the “intensely frustrating” process of getting health information from the government.

Leicester’s local lockdown

Leicester has recorded 866 of its 2,987 Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks.

With this number, its inhabitants could be plunged into a localised lockdown. Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and Ivan Browne, the council’s director of public health, will meet government officials to discuss the latest Covid-19.

The mayor spoke that “Frankly it’s been intensely frustrating. It was only last Thursday that we finally got some of the data we need but we’re still not getting all of it. It was only at 1.04am this morning that the recommendations for Leicester arrived in my inbox.” He also added that what they’re suggesting is not a return to lockdown.

There is the assumption of continuing with the current level of restriction for another two weeks. Then he described the information in the government report as “at best partial”. It seems to suggest that it was the increase in tests that caused an increase in cases.

While Mr Browne told: “I think as director of public health we have really been pushing for some time to ask for as complete a data set as possible because that’s how we can really effectively start to challenge these things on the ground.” He revealed that the cases appeared to mostly be among younger working-age people, predominantly in the east part of the city. However he admitted the council had not received the full details of those who had been tested.

Claudia Webbe, Labour MP for Leicester East, has said she believes a local lockdown is necessary for her constituency because of “significant levels of African and Asian minority ethnic communities” and “significant levels of poverty”.