the times | Saturday September 5 2020 2GM 15
News
The further easing of local lockdowns
has been announced for residents in
Greater Manchester, Lancashire and
West Yorkshire.
From next Tuesday all pools, gyms
and sport facilities will be allowed to
reopen in the locked-down parts of
Bradford and Blackburn with Darwen.
This will also apply to Leicester.
On the same day casinos, ice rinks,
bowling alleys, exhibition halls, confer-
ence centres and indoor play areas can
reopen in Lancashire and West York-
shire. These venues can also begin op-
erating in Greater Manchester, apart
from Bolton, where coronavirus cases
remain particularly high.
Socially distanced indoor perform-
ances will also be able to resume in the
same areas, as will close-contact beauty
treatments such as facials and eyebrow
threading.
The changes will bring Lancashire,
West Yorkshire and Greater Manches-
ter — apart from Bolton — in line with
the changes made in the rest of
England on August 15.
“I’m very glad we’ve been able to
make this change, working with local
councils, because local lockdowns are
working to control the virus,” Matt
Hancock, the health secretary, said.
“We are seeing improvements in the
rates of infection thanks to the huge
efforts made by local communities and
authorities working alongside our
effective Test and Trace system.
“We must stay alert and I continue to
encourage everyone to play their part
by following local rules, self-isolating
and requesting a free test as soon as
they get any symptoms.”
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Great-
er Manchester, welcomed the news
that many businesses could reopen.
“It is understandable that this won’t
apply in Bolton for the time being but
we will be working hard with Bolton
council and partners to move to a posi-It is the undemocratic theatre for our
times and while the play has provoked
audience clashes in the past, facemasks
will make shouting matches harder.
Theatre Royal Bath has unveiled an
autumn season of classic plays with
hopes high that its auditorium will be
able to record a Covid-era high of 40
per cent capacity.
While London’s West End and a host
of other large theatres across the coun-
try remain closed, the Theatre Royal
has a season of plays by Harold Pinter,
Michael Frayn and David Mamet.
Danny Moar, its director, said that
“old fashioned theatres bizarrely lend
themselves to social distancing more
than many modern theatres”.
“There is no democracy here,” he
said of its main auditorium, which dates
from the 1860s. There has been a
theatre on the site since 1805. “There
are four levels and multiple entrances
and exits [to keep social classes apart
historically].”
The season begins in October with
Pinter’s Betrayal followed by Frayn’sHistory of social distancing
helps theatre reopen doors
Copenhagen and completed by Mamet’s
Oleanna. Mamet’s play, which focuses
on a professor accused of sexual harass-
ment by a female student, was first seen
in England in a Royal Court production
in 1993 directed by Pinter and featuring
David Suchet and Lia Williams.
“I have never been in an audience like
that,” Moar said. “Audience members
shouting and screaming at each other.
Some night there were fights in the au-
dience. It just has the power to evoke an
incredibly strong reaction.”
The season launch comes with
financial risks, Moar said. Insurers are
refusing to provide cover for cancella-
tions in case of local lockdowns while
reducing the theatre’s capacity from
nearly 900 to 375 means at best the
organisation, which does not receive
subsidy from Arts Council England,
will break even.
However, Moar added: “What every-
one hears is that the West End in gener-
al is a wasteland whereas Bath is heav-
ing. Restaurants are packed and the
whole travel to get to your local theatre
is much easier than going on a sweaty
tube in London.”David Sanderson Arts Correspondent
changed. “When it comes to not
wearing masks and ignoring
distancing, the Brits are the worst,”
said George Michailides, a Zante
police official.
“They just don’t believe the virus
is real. The moment they get here
they think they are free to do
whatever they want. When they see
one person take off their mask,
they all do it.”
As bars empty at midnight, the
beach turns into a sweaty cauldron
of bodies as revellers shift to theshoreline for organised
parties with names such as
“Fxxk Covid-19”.
“It’s a frightening place at
night and I avoid it,” said
Tassos Zades, a local
nightclub owner. His club,
Rescue, was temporarily
shut down due to
overcrowding in July and he
decided to close for the rest
of the summer. “It was too
dangerous — we lost money
but we kept our lives,” he
said.
With only 28 homegrown
cases on the island,
resentment is growing. “It
was the tourists who brought
the virus here in the first
place,” said one resident.
After spreading the virus on
the beach at Laganas, those
tourists are now bringing it
home. About 20 passengers
out of 187 who flew from
Zante to Cardiff on August 25
on a Tui Airways flight tested
positive. Tui has said that it
will stop selling package deals to
Laganas. Calum Butler, an 18-year-
old Londoner, frequented the Zante
beach parties and felt virus-like
symptoms on August 28 as he
stepped off a flight from Athens.
“I now have the classic
symptoms. I am 90 per cent sure I
have it,” he told The Times, adding
that he was quarantining.
“Stepping back, it’s a bit worrying
to think how many people came
into contact there and how easily a
second wave could start in the UK.
I don’t regret going, but I am
frustrated I was unlucky. The regret
will come if I have passed it on to
someone else.”ssh
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L‘Don’t blame
my son for
pubs shutting’
The father of a man whose bank holi-
day pub crawl around the Welsh town
of Maesteg forced several businesses
to shut when a test showed that he had
Covid-19 has criticised the “confusing”
and “shambolic” testing policies of
tourists coming back to the UK.
Brian Preece’s son Louis, 21, sent off
for an NHS test days after returning
from a week on the Greek island of
Zante. He said he had no symptoms so
was not under any formal obligation to
self-isolate.
On Tuesday, when his positive test
result returned, several pubs had to
shut for deep cleaning, beauty salons
closed and dance classes and rugby
matches were cancelled.
Brian Preece said: “He was told by
the NHS he didn’t require a test as he
had no symptoms so he had to lie to get
a test online. When his test results
came back he personally phoned every
pub he had visited and contacted his
friends he had been on holiday with to
get them to take a test. Not exactly the
actions of someone who is an idiot or
irresponsible, as some have claimed.
The UK and Welsh approach to Covid
is so confusing and unclear, people are
lacking in confidence in the system.”
Ross Thomas, a councillor, said: “It
would be common sense to tweak the
guidance — if it isn’t there already —
saying to self-isolate pending the test
results.”Lucy Bannerman
Party fun in Zante. The local police
say that young Britons are worst:
‘They don’t believe the virus is real’News
Greater Manchester
lockdown eased but
fears rise for Leeds
tion where the restrictions on business
opening can be eased as soon as poss-
ible,” he said.
Bolton had an infection rate of 76.
cases per 100,000 people in the week to
August 31, the highest in England.
The rate of infection is still too high in
Greater Manchester, parts of Lancash-
ire and West Yorkshire to allow lifting
restrictions on social gatherings.
Leeds, South Tyneside and Middles-
brough, as well as Corby and Kettering
in Northamptonshire, have been added
to Public Health England’s weekly
watchlist as areas of concern. Newark &
Sherwood, Slough and Wakefield have
been removed.
Inclusion does not automatically re-
sult in more restrictions but means
greater monitoring.
Infection rates have been rising in
Leeds with the latest seven-day figure
at 32.5 cases per 100,000 people. Judith
Blake, leader of the city council, said:
“This is a pivotal moment in our efforts
to control the spread of the virus in
Leeds and to keep our city open.”
She said there was a “range of things”
behind the increase in cases adding:
“This is a rise in all different wards
across the city, particularly in young
adults of all communities.
“September is a critical time, we have
our schools going back and then we
have significant numbers of students
travelling from all over the country and
beyond to come back to our universi-
ties.”
The council said that its attempts to
stay on top of community transmission
included targeted community work,
mobile testing units and public aware-
ness campaigns.
The spread was “broad and changea-
ble across wards” and cases have in-
creasingly been detected in younger
people aged 18-34 “with some concern
over activities like house parties and
gatherings”.
Residents are being advised to “play
their part” by limiting social inter-
action.Charlotte Wace
Northern CorrespondentALAMY