'Simply no facts' to suggest Walsall on brink of local lockdown
There are "simply no facts" to support suggestions parts of the Black Country could be set for a Leicester-style local lockdown, a police chief has insisted.
Reports this week have claimed Walsall could be among the next towns and cities to follow Leicester into a local lockdown. This has been dismissed by council and health bosses who say there has been no major spike in coronavirus cases.
Walsall has recorded some of the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the Black Country. There have been conflicting reports about which areas could potentially be next to go into lockdown.
Chief Superintendent Steve Graham, of West Midlands Police, said the force was prepared for the event of a local lockdown but said there was nothing to suggest one was immediate.
He told the Express & Star: "If we go into a local lockdown we know what it looks and feels like because we did it as part of the national lockdown.
"There are a whole lot of rumours but there are simply no facts that we are on the verge of a local lockdown.
"It has happened in Leicester and there are lots of lists (of towns and cities) going around but until the Government says that area is on local lockdown, that's when we'll start to put it in place. At the moment it's not across the West Midlands."
Council officials said the claims about Walsall were giving the town "bad press".
Health boss Councillor Stephen Craddock said: “Our cases went from two in a week to four in a week so there was a 100 per cent increase. But then in the last seven days, it’s gone down to two again so we’ve only had a 50 per cent decrease.
“It’s a very low level and if you compare that with some of the other regions where they’re having much bigger seven days totals, Walsall is being given an unfair press at the moment so don’t believe everything you read. There is not a major spike happening at the moment.”
