Oldham council enlists celebrities to tackle ‘confusing’ Covid messaging

Council officials in Oldham are enlisting the help of celebrities to get the new coronavirus restriction messages across as the town goes back into lockdown.

From midnight on Saturday, people in the Greater Manchester town, as well as Pendle and Blackburn in Lancashire, have been told not to socialise with anyone outside their household.

New data shows that coronavirus cases in Oldham had reached 103.1 per 100,000 people during the week ending 13 August. 

But the new restrictions have caused ‘confusion’ and more clarity is needed, according to local leaders. 

Oldham Council leader Sean Fielding told BBC Breakfast that he had recruited Azhar Ali, the Pakistani cricket captain, and James Buckley, who played Jay in TV series The Inbetweeners, to spread messaging on the new restrictions.

He added: ‘We are also doing some really targeted intervention in our most affected communities, and that includes things like door-to-door testing, using community leaders to get messages over that so far the corporate council communications channels have not been as successful as we would like.

‘And also being quite creative in terms of how we communicate those messages, we’ve enlisted support of the Pakistani cricket captain (Azhar Ali) who has recorded a video for us to get the message out to communities that might listen to him rather than listen to me.

‘We have used the actor that played Jay in the Inbetweeners (James Buckley) for example, so we have been really creative in using assets within our communities and also celebrities or whatever it might be that might be more effective in telling people the restrictions and why it’s so important that they follow them.’

Under the new rules, public transport in the north west towns should only be used if it is essential and the number of people attending weddings, civil partnerships and funerals should be limited to no more than 20, made up of household members and close family only, the department said.

The Government said a rise in people testing positive for coronavirus in the area was due to ‘social mixing’, particularly among 20 to 39-year-olds.

But leaders in the region have complained the restrictions have been imposed without ‘detailed guidance’ and have caused confusion.

The Labour leader of Pendle Council Mohammed Iqbal told the BBC’s Today programme on Saturday the restrictions, which the council argued against, had been ‘imposed’ to ‘punish people who have been testing flat out’.

He added: ‘The Government has announced these tightening restrictions for local people in my area, yet they have not issued any detailed guidance as to how it will operate, who will police it.

‘So local people are actually more confused than they were on Thursday evening.’ 

Greater Manchester Police also took to social media on Saturday to tell people not to call 999 or 101 for clarification about Covid-19 measures.

It tweeted: ‘Please do not call 101 or 999 for clarification on COVID-19 regulations.’