Leicester’s Covid-19 infection rate has dropped 13% in a week but the city’s lockdown still won’t be reviewed until July 18 as Matt Hancock refuses to reveal threshold for easing measures
- Health Secretary said there is no set benchmark at which lockdown will be lifted
- Leicester went into England’s first local lockdown last week in spike of Covid-19
- Mr Hancock said officials want to see 14 days of data before evaluating rules
The coronavirus infection rate is falling in Leicester but the local lockdown there must run for another 11 days before officials consider lifting it, officials say.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in Parliament today that the seven-day rate of infection in the East Midlands city has dropped from 135 to 117 per 100,000 people.
He said the 13 per cent decline was ‘good news’ but the city must remain in its local lockdown – which began last week – until at least July 18, when it will be re-evaluated.
Leicester is the first city to have gone into local lockdown after a surge of Covid-19 cases there, now thought to be linked to working conditions in clothes factories.
Schools and non-essential shops were ordered to close again last week and people again prevented from meeting up in groups or going to others’ houses.
Mr Hancock said: ‘We took, last week, difficult but vital decisions about Leicester.
‘Since then we’ve been working with Leicester and Leicestershire and I’m pleased to say that, together, we have brought down the seven-day infection rate from 135 to 117 cases per 100,0000 people.
‘What we said when we took the measures just over a week ago is that we needed to see 14 days of data, so we propose to make announcements on the next steps on the 18th of July.
‘Of course, if further measures are needed in the meantime to tighten up then we will take them immediately, but… the good news is that the data are currently moving in the right direction.’
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in Parliament today that the seven-day rate of infection in the East Midlands city has dropped from 135 to 117 per 100,000 people
Mr Hancock said he would not put a number on how far the infection rate had to fall before the lockdown would be lifted.
His counterpart, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, said in Germany officials use a benchmark of 50 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000.
Mr Hancock replied: ‘We’re not going to use or give a specific figure because both the level and the rate of change matters.
‘If the level were lower but it was going up, that could be a worse situation than a higher level that is under control and falling. So you’ve got to look at both the level and the rate of change.’