Three cities added to ‘at risk’ UK watch list for localised lockdown

Three cities have been placed on a watchlist and could be set for localised lockdowns if they fail to tackle the new spikes in coronavirus.

Bradford, Doncaster and Oldham have been confirmed by Whitehall insiders that are being closely monitored, according to The Telegraph.

The Whitehall sources confirmed that Bradford has the second highest rate of coronavirus infections after Leicester which was placed into lockdown on Tuesday.

In the week ending to 21 June, Public Health England (PHE) data shows four areas who have the highest cases after Leicester, being Bradford, Barnsley, Rochdale and Oldham.

Imperial College London’s Professor Neil Ferguson who previously advised the government, warned that Bradford and Doncaster may be placed into lockdown.

Speaking to the BBC’s Radio 4’s Today programme, Professor Fergusson said, “It’s inevitable we will [have further local outbreaks], we are relaxing lockdown rules and that means that contacts in the population are going up and that’s a very variable process.”

He added, “Those are areas, were not as high as Leicester, but they have some of the highest numbers of cases per 100,000 of the population, which is the relevant measure, so they’re clearly of concern.”

Oxford University’s Professor Peter Horby, who chairs the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group (Nervtag) was asked by the programme if the UK should prepare for more localised lockdowns.

Professor Horby said, “Unfortunately I think we should. We’ve seen the epidemic is focal, which is often the case, it’s not the same in all places,” he said.

“And we saw that London unfortunately led the way in the UK and now Leicester is unfortunately leading the way and we can expect more of that, so I think there will have to be local responses to local outbreaks.”

On Wednesday, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan warned that the capital is at risk of a more “deadly second wave” and more powers are needed to enforce local lockdowns.

Khan told the London Health Board in a meeting that lessons need to be learned quickly from the first wave as 8,222 Londoners lost their lives to Covid by 5 June.

There could be further localised lockdowns which could be “just days away” following a Public Health England (PHE) “at risk” list.