Coronavirus: PM rejects there was a ‘lost week’ while COVID-19 spread in Leicester

Derrick Santistevan

Boris Johnson has actually rejected there was a “lost week” while coronavirus was dispersing in Leicester as the federal government was implicated of being “slow to act” over regional spikes in COVID-19 infections.

Leicester has actually returned to rigorous lockdown conditions – as the rest of England prepares to resume bars, bars and dining establishments this weekend – with the closure of schools and non-essential stores in the Midlands city.

Public Health England figures show there were at least 45 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the week to 21 June in Leicester, with Barnsley, Bradford and Rochdale likewise amongst the worst-affected areas.





‘ We’re the doers, they’re the ditherers!’

The information covers all mass COVID-19 screening in England, consisting of those performed in NHS and Public Health England laboratories (called pillar one), plus all neighborhood screening, drive- tests and throughs sent out to people’s houses (pillar 2).

At Wednesday’s session of Prime Minister’s Concerns in your house of Commons, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer declared that regional authorities in Leicester just had “half of the data” when keeping an eye on COVID-19 cases.

He declared that city authorities were just offered pillar one information and not pillar 2, which indicated they “thought there were 80 positive tests in the last fortnight when the real figure was 944”.

Sir Keir informed MPs: “The regional authority was just offered the real figure last Thursday.

“So there was a lost week whilst the virus was spreading.”

He prompted the prime minister to offer a “cast-iron guarantee… that no other local authority will ever be put in that position again”.

Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has actually likewise criticised the federal government and PHE for hold-ups in sharing case and screening information which revealed how the illness was dispersing.

In the Commons, Sir Keir asked why the federal government was “so slow to act” to execute a lockdown in Leicester.

“At the daily press conference on 18 June, the health secretary said ‘there’s an outbreak of COVID-19 right now in parts of Leicester’,” he stated.

” Yet it was just on Monday night today that the federal government presented limitations.

” That’s a hold-up of 11 days throughout which the infection was dispersing in Leicester.”

Mr Johnson responded that the “federal government first took notification and acted” on the spike in infections in Leicester on 8 June.

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“We sent mobile testing units shortly thereafter,” he stated, with ministers likewise engaging “actively” with regional authorities.

The prime minister likewise rejected regional councils had actually not gotten full coronavirus information, informing Sir Keir he was “mistaken”.

“Both pillar one and pillar two have been shared not just with Leicester but with all authorities across the country,” Mr Johnson informed MPs.

” We did in Leicester precisely what we did in Kirklees, or in Bradford, or in Weston-super-Mare or other locations where really reliable whack-a- mole methods have actually been put in location.

” For factors that I believe your house will most likely comprehend, there were specific issues in Leicester in executing the suggestions and in getting people to comprehend what was needed to do.

” However, let’s face it, we have actually needed to act, the federal government has actually acted.

” He wishes to know whether we’ll act in future to ensure that we safeguard the health of the whole nation.

“And I can tell him that we will.”

Nevertheless, health minister Nadine Dorries appeared to validate that Leicester had actually not gotten full coronavirus information – consisting of pillar 2 screening – up until last Thursday.

She posted on Twitter: “This information was provided to all authorities on the 22 nd.

” Many accessed it utilizing an authentication code on the 24 th, the rest (Leicester) on the 25 th.

“It isn’t publicly available yet, but that will hopefully change soon.”

Toby Perkins, a Labour shadow minister, declared Mr Johnson’s assertion that getting people in Leicester to “understand” coronavirus suggestions was “revealing”.

He tweeted: “With Dominic Cummings conduct still fresh in the memory, PM suggesting the Leicester second wave is because people didn’t understand what to do is revealing.”

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