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“Inevitably” there will be inconsistencies in the new three-tier lockdown system, says Boris Johnson, as it emerged that the city with the highest infection rate in England will avoid the strictest COVID-19 rules.
Nottingham will be placed in the “high” category of coronavirus alert levels – the average level between “medium” and “very high” – when the new system goes into effect on Wednesday.
A total of 2,777 new COVID-19 Cases were reported in the East Midlands city in the seven days to October 9, the equivalent of 834.2 cases per 100,000 residents.
The prime minister said that feelings of ‘anomalies’ were inevitable Photo: Pippa Fowles / Issue 10
This represented a huge jump from 1,417 new cases in the previous seven days (the week through October 2), or 425.7 per 100,000 people.
And the city, which has had the highest infection rate for five days in a row, remains far ahead of the area with the second highest rate in England, Knowsley, which now has 656.9 cases per 100,000.
David Mellen, the head of Nottingham City Council, suggested that there were two reasons why the city had not been placed at the “very high” level.
“The first is that our hospitals are not currently at that level,” he said. “There is a lot of preparation going on, but they are not complete.
“The second is that the cases have not spread in large numbers to the older population. Currently, most of our cases are among younger people.”
So far only the Liverpool city region has been placed in the “very high” category of restrictions.
Steve Rotherham, the mayor of the region, said the city’s new measures had been “dictated by the government.”
The prime minister was questioned about the apparent inconsistencies in the ranking of English regions at a Downing Street press conference on Monday.
Johnson was challenged by criticism of the decision to place West Midlands in the “high” category by the region’s mayor, Andy Street.
“In the variations in the levels and the feelings of the people there are anomalies; that will inevitably happen in a complex campaign against a pandemic like this,” said the prime minister.
“I don’t want to put West Midlands, I don’t want to put anything in the measures that we have to do … but we have to end that virus, it is necessary.
“I’m afraid it is increasing in the West Midlands, as indeed it is across the country.
“There is no area where it is no longer increasing, unfortunately, and that is why we have to take especially proactive action in those areas that are particularly affected.”
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Street had previously asked the government to review its decision to place the West Midlands in the second tier “as soon as possible”.
“I have always argued that data and evidence should drive decision-making and therefore I am very surprised that the West Midlands, with an average infection rate of 123 per 100,000, is now on the same level as Manchester’s rate. infection rate of more than 550 per 100,000, “it said in a statement.
“Reflecting on this, I am very disappointed that the government has not found a more flexible approach to our situation.”
