Leicester is now in a local lockdown in the UK, due to a rise in cases, that officials believed posed a risk to the public.
The rate of virus transmission in Leicester is too high.
There are also a few other northern towns that officials are getting worried about too. But Leicester is the first and only so far to be hit by a local lockdown, where non essential shops and schools have been closed, alongside the cancellation of pubs reopening in the coming days. The mayor of Leicester challenged those above him to lock the city down, to prove a point. So, they did, and it’s not clear how long shops and schools will be closed there, but it’s safe to assume that they’ll just remain closed until it’s safe to reopen.
It may be the first to have a local lockdown but I’m sure it won’t be the last. As mentioned before, officials are also becoming increasingly worried about a number of other areas in the UK. If the Leicester lockdown is successful, there’s no reason why they won’t impose smiler restrictions on other areas too.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said people in Leicester are to “stay at home as much as you can” and recommends against “all but essential travel” to and from the city.
“We’ve decided that from tomorrow, non-essential retail will have to close and as children have been particularly impacted by this outbreak, schools will also need to close from Thursday, staying open for vulnerable children and children of critical workers as they did throughout,” he said. “Unfortunately, the clinical advice is that the relaxation of shielding measures due on July 4 cannot now take place in Leicester.”
He continued: “The more people follow these rules in Leicester, the faster we will get control of this virus, and get Leicester back to normal. These actions are also profoundly in the national interest. Because it’s in everyone’s interests that we control the virus as locally as possible.”
He also noted how the police will be enforcing the lockdown and keeping order in the city, saying: “We will be bringing forward a legal change very shortly, in the next couple of days, because some of the measures that we’ve unfortunately had to take in Leicester will require legal underpinning.”
The decision wasn’t taken lightly, but there are currently around 135 Coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in Leicester, which is 3 time’s more than the second most infectious town, Bradford.
Schools will remain open for essential workers as they did before, but will be closed to everyone else. Unfortunately, those who were planning to stop shielding in Leicester on the 4th of July too will have to continue protecting themselves, and stay at home.
