the times | Friday August 7 2020 2GM 11News
Preston’s residents are bracing
themselves for a local lockdown, with
many critical of the effectiveness of
restrictions placed on neighbouring
areas.
Kyle Preston, 23, works six days a
week in the city but lives in Lancaster.
He said that the measures introduced
last week “really should be
Lancashire-wide”, rather than just in
some areas, such as the neighbouring
Blackburn with Darwen.
Rules in place in Greater Manchester
and parts of East Lancashire and
West Yorkshire mean that people
cannot gather in each other’s homes.
The same rules were introduced across
the ten boroughs of Greater Man-
chester, despite some having a
significantly lower number of cases
than others. Preston is waiting to see if
similar measures will be introduced
there.
Mr Preston, who manages a vape
shop, added: “If it wasn’t for the
economy we would all still be locked
down — it’s just we’re not financially
stable enough.”
Ahmid Ali, 47, who runs an
electronics shop, said that he had been
surprised to see people clustered
outside bars during a recent trip to
Manchester. “If they say you should not
go into people’s houses, then what is the
logic behind the restaurants?” he said.
He works in Preston but lives in
Blackburn, meaning that he is already
subject to restrictions. He took issue
with the idea of localised restrictions.
“If you’re going to bring in these rules
they should be the same for everybody,”
he said. “It doesn’t seem like different
rules for different areas is working.”
Adrian Phillips, chief executive ofmasks prompts spending inquiry
News
Protest and doubt
as Preston waits
for new lockdown
Charlotte Wace Northern Correspondent Preston city council, said that it was still
awaiting a government decision on a
local lockdown. Cases have been con-
tinuing to rise, with the weekly rate at
36 per 100,000 people.
“It’s perceived that the government
figure for action is 20 and therefore we
have been anticipating some sort of
government action for the last week,”
he said.
He urged residents to behave as if
they were under the restrictions in
place in other parts of the north.
Matthew Brown, the leader of
Preston city council, described the rise
in cases as “extremely worrying”.
Blackburn with Darwen has the
highest number of cases in the UK at
present.
“We’re the administrative centre of
Lancashire,” Mr Brown said. “We’ve got
a train station and a lot of employment
within Lancashire is within Preston, so
people coming into the city could
potentially be spreading it that way.”
However, Sakthi Karunanithi,
Lancashire county council’s director of
public health, said that there was “no
evidence” that the virus was coming in
from areas with higher cases.
Last Thursday residents were issued
with local guidance encouraging them
to take similar precautions to those
mandated in areas facing new
measures, including avoiding guests
from other households in homes. Ef-
forts have been made locally to com-
municate this message.
The virus is believed to be affecting
people across the community, particu-
larly young people of working age and
in areas where there are high levels of
deprivation.
“It is a myth that it is only affecting
South Asian groups — it is affecting all
ethnic groups,” Dr Karunanithi said.BEX ARTS/MDD/PAAsher and Bumper, below,
are taking part in a trial
to see if dogs can identify
Covid-19 by smell. People
in the northwest with
mild symptoms are being
asked to send in their
masks and socksThere are still reasons to be cheerful amid onslaught of bad news
Analysis
B
oris Johnson has cancelled
further easing of the
lockdown (Chris Smyth
writes). There are
warnings that pubs may
have to shut or visits to family and
friends be cancelled to ensure that
children can return to school next
month. Chris Whitty, the chief
medical officer for England, has as
good as told us that our present
level of freedom is all we can expect
until next year.
Thousands are losing their jobs
and winter is approaching fast. But
in the midst of the gloom, there are
some reasons to be cheerful.infection rates are very low
and not rising in most places
If Covid cases are rising again, the
increase is only gentle and largely
localised. The Office for National
Statistics figures that so spooked
Mr Johnson last week showed thatnew daily cases had doubled since
June to 4,200 a day. But the
uncertainties in the survey are
huge, given how rare coronavirus
infections are now. In a sample
where only 59 people out of 116,
swabbed tested positive over six
weeks, a case here or there can
make a big difference.
Confirmed cases are rising again
but from a low base. Across the UK
there were fewer than 900 cases a
day last week, compared with more
than 6,000 at the height of the
pandemic, even with many more
tests carried out. Swathes of the
UK, particularly rural areas and the
southwest, have almost no cases.testing and tracing
has got faster
The system has improved markedly
since it began. Only 5 per cent of
drive-through test results came
back within 24 hours of booking in
its first week. This is now 59 per
cent. Test and Trace is alsotargeting local areas with high
infections better with extra tests
and local support. Although there
has been a 17 per cent increase in
positive tests in the week to July 29
compared with the week before,
this is because more tests were
being done and focused on hotspots.
Contact tracing systems like that
of South Korea are the gold
standard but Britain is doing better
than some western countries. In
New York, for example, only 40 per
cent of positive cases give contact
information, about half the level
here. New Zealand’s system is
performing at similar levels to
England’s but has had to trace 360
people rather than 250,000.swift local lockdowns
could be working
Since Leicester became the first
area to go into local lockdown,
infection rates have fallen by two
thirds. Extra testing has also
brought increases under control inLuton and Bedford. David Nabarro,
the World Health Organisation’s
Covid envoy, said Britain “will do
really well” because there is “really
good attention to where the virus is
locally” and a lot of “public
engagement in getting on top of it”.flu may not be such a
threat this year
The nightmare scenario of a second
wave of coronavirus coinciding with
a bad flu season is unlikely. The
NHS is planning to vaccinate more
than half the population against flu,
including all NHS staff. Social
distancing measures to fight Covid
could also stop flu spreading. In
Australia, flu deaths are down more
than 90 per cent on last winter.primary schools do not
seem to be a risk
The return of primary schools in
June did not seem to have much
effect on infection rates and
scientific advisers increasinglybelieve that not only are young
children largely spared the worst of
the disease, but that they play very
little role in transmission.you may be immune even if
you don’t have antibodies
Immunity certificates no longer
seem feasible and some studies
have found that antibodies fade
after a few months. However, this
does not necessarily mean you will
get infected again. “If you have a
negative result [on an antibody test]
all it means is that you have not had
an infection within the past three
months,” Paul Hunter, of the
University of East Anglia, said. “But
that does not mean you are
necessarily susceptible. It is quite
possible that some degree of
immunity lasts longer than the
antibody is detectable through
something called T cell/cellular
immunity, which is much more
difficult to measure.”
Ed Conway, page 24