Latest lockdown 'inevitable' as infection rates rapidly rise across West Midlands
The new national lockdown has been introduced as Covid case rates surge across the Midlands, with new peaks being hit on a daily basis.
With the new strain of the virus running rampant hospital admissions have also rocketed, with the number of Covid patients on wards across the Midlands exceeding 4,000 on January 3 – eclipsing the first wave’s peak of 3,430.
And while primary schools were due to reopen this week, hundreds of them across our region remained closed, with headteachers concerned that opening their doors would put staff and pupils at risk.
According to the latest data, the number of confirmed coronavirus patients in hospital in England between Christmas Day and January 3 rose by 41 per cent – figures which have caused alarm in Whitehall and the health service. The rate of infection in parts of the Midlands has doubled in the last week.
Wolverhampton, where mass testing was launched last month, saw the case rate hit 717.7 in the week to December 31, up 64 per cent on the previous seven days. The numbers also rose by 68 per cent in Dudley, to 509.6. In Sandwell the rate is 624.1, up 75 per cent, while Walsall’s rate has gone up by 78 per cent to 566.1.
South Staffordshire saw its rate jump by 66 per cent to 502.5, and in Cannock Chase the current rate is 495.2, a rise of 70 per cent on the seven days to December 23.
Meanwhile Worcestershire – which was in Tier 2 before being moved up to Tier 3 on New Year’s Eve – now has an infection rate of 317, its highest level of the pandemic.
In other parts of the country – most notably the South East – rates have now gone past the 1,000 mark, with Barking and Dagenham at 1476.2 cases per 100,000 people after 3,143 cases were recorded in a week.
More Covid-19 coverage:
Announcing the new measures, Mr Johnson said that further steps had to be taken without delay in order to arrest the rise in infections and protect the NHS.
He brought back the “stay at home” message from the start of the pandemic, saying that this time it came with “hope” due to the roll out of the vaccine.
The public were told to work from home unless it is impossible to do so, such as for critical workers and those in the construction industry.
Exercise will be permitted with household or support bubble members or with one other person from another household, but is advised to be limited to only once per day and carried out locally.
The remaining exceptions to going outside are to seek medical help, provide assistance to a vulnerable person, to receive medical care or to flee a threat of harm.
Non-essential shops will have to close, but early years settings such as nurseries and childminders are allowed to remain open and existing childcare bubbles can stay in place.
Exams will again face disruption as schools close to all those other than for the children of key workers and vulnerable children until after the February half-term. University students will not be allowed to return to their institutions.
Restaurants and other hospitality venues can continue delivery or takeaway services but will no longer be permitted to serve alcohol. Outdoor gyms, tennis courts and golf courses must close and outdoor team sports will be prohibited. But Premier League football and other elite sports with testing regimes and bubbles in place will be allowed to continue.
The clinically vulnerable who were previously told to shield should stay at home and only leave for medical appointments and exercise.
MPs react to 'inevitable' measures
Across the Midlands there has been a weary acceptance among politicians that new lockdown measures were required.
Marco Longhi, the Conservative MP for Dudley North, said the Government had no choice but to act on the “changing direction” of the virus.
“If the senior scientists’ advice is that we need to have a lockdown, as much as I find it utterly regrettable, then that is what I would back,” he said.
Mike Wood, the Conservative MP for Dudley South, said the new measures became more likely due to too many people not following the rules and taking “unavoidable risks”.
He said: “If you go into a supermarket and shopping centres people are not behaving the way they were in May. People need to do all they can to reduce the risks.
“Every contact creates another risk.”
John Spellar, Labour MP for Warley, said he was reluctant to back another lockdown due to impact on the economy. However, he said it was better if the Government acted “sooner rather than later” to deal with rising cases.
He said: “The situation is clearly developing but at the same time the Government also has to make sure they maintain society and also maintain employment.”
Pat McFadden, the Shadow City Minister and Wolverhampton South East MP, said tougher measures were inevitable, adding: “The lesson we should have learned is that it would be better to try and get ahead of this rather than make the decision in principle and sit on it for a couple of weeks while infections rise.”
He added: “Some people have to go to work, so there is a limited number of options when it comes to stopping people from mixing.”Mr McFadden has pushed for schools to be kept open during the pandemic, saying closing them was bad for children’s education and “exacerbates inequality”.
But he said infection rates were rising so high that “it may be there is no alternative”.
Birmingham’s Labour city council leader Ian Ward had called for a new national lockdown. He said intensive care beds at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust – which runs three hospitals in the city and another in neighbouring Solihull – were at 98 per cent capacity. He added that at City Hospital in Birmingham and Sandwell General Hospital in West Bromwich, intensive care beds were fully occupied. “We really are back in the situation we were in last March and April,” he said.
“For six days in a row now the case rate has exceeded 50,000 nationally and the Government needs to recognise where we are. Unfortunately we need another lockdown for a period.
“It’s probably going to be a period of over a month, I would suggest.”
Dr Johnny McMahon, Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for health, care and wellbeing, warned that the new fast-spreading coronavirus strain had “arrived in the county”.
“This along with a bit of extra mixing between households over the holidays has led to a steep rise in cases,” he said. “Now, more than ever, it’s vital we do all we can to stop the spread of infection.“One of the most important things we are asking people to do, alongside the basics of hands, face and space is, if they live in a hotspot area, please take time to book a test – even if you feel well and have no symptoms.”
Councillor Shaun Davies, Labour leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, said the Government had been “too slow” to act. “It has been obvious for many weeks now that the Covid rates are increasing significantly,” he said.
He added that he wanted to see all public sector efforts pushed towards accelerating the UK’s vaccination programme.
He said: “Now there has to be a national effort from the public sector, every part of it, to get the vaccination out as quickly as possible. We have seen a slow implementation here in Telford and that has to speed up.”
The new measures for England, which came into force at midnight, will be debated in the Commons tomorrow and signed off retrospectively by MPs.
While Ministers have hailed the roll out of the new Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Mr Johnson warned the nation needed to prepare for some “tough” weeks ahead as the jab was extended to the most vulnerable.
