After the first rumors of recent days the news is now official. Leicester became the first area in the UK which back into lockdown as the city is having Covid-19’s jump cases.
The first local lockdown in Leicester
Leicester faces two weeks in lockdown to control the spike in Covid cases. However, the new confirmed cases are not only in Leicester, but also have been rising across 36 of the 151 upper-tier local authorities in England in recent weeks as the country moves through its lockdown phases.
Officials have suggested the city remain in lockdown in order to stamp out the local outbreak. Even though the country will ease the lockdown on July 4. Leicester should wait for another fortnight to follow the rest of the country to ease the lockdown. The citizens and businesses of Leicester reacted with despair to the news.
Leicester Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said any extension would mean pubs, restaurants, hairdressers, outdoor playgrounds and other areas would not reopen as planned. Also Schools will be closed for most students from Thursday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has described this as a “whack-a-mole” strategy. It is currently unclear how a lockdown in a particular town or city would work in practice. While some 1000 people are still testing positive for the virus every single day across the UK.
Regional flare-ups or Coronavirus
The UK has now suffered more than 43,000 deaths from this pandemic and the worst death toll in Europe. And now the cities and counties across England which have seen Covid-19 cases rise in recent weeks are Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Derbyshire, Doncaster, Ealing, Enfield, Gateshead, Gloucestershire, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hounslow, Isle of Wight, Kensington and Chelsea, Leicester, Medway, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Redbridge, Redcar and Cleveland, Richmond upon Thames, Sandwell, Slough, Suffolk, Sunderland, Tower Hamlets, Wakefield, Walsall, Wandsworth, Westminster, Wigan, Wiltshire, Windsor and Maidenhead then York.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month said that regional flare-ups of the virus in England would result in “local lockdown’.