Oldham overtakes lockdown-Leicester to have the highest second coronavirus infection rate in England

Oldham has overtaken Leicester to have the second highest Covid-19 infection rate in England, official figures revealed today.

NHS statistics today showed Oldham recorded 54.3 coronavirus cases for every 100,000 people between July 20 and 26. 

The weekly infection rate for the Greater Manchester town has risen by 191 per cent. In comparison, Leicester’s outbreak has dropped slightly to 53.2.

Only Blackburn with Darwen is currently being hit worse than Oldham, with the area recording 85.9 cases per 100,000 people in the past week.

Two thirds of new Covid-19 cases in Oldham are among Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, the council said.

Local officials have pleaded with locals to abide by tough restrictions implemented yesterday, in a desperate bit to prevent a full-blown lockdown. 

Council bosses have now urged all of the borough’s 235,000 residents to not let any visitors into their home for at least two weeks.

It puts Oldham at odds with the rest of England, after lockdown rules were relaxed earlier this month to let people to stay overnight with loved ones.

Everyone living in the Greater Manchester borough has also been asked to keep two metres apart from friends and family when seeing them outside.

Current government advice for the rest of the nation recommends a one metre-plus rule — but people should keep two metres apart where possible.   

Officials noted the new guidelines would be ‘particularly tough’ for the Muslim community who were preparing to celebrate Eid on Friday.

Oldham has 54.3 cases per 100,000 people, data from Public Health England shows, against the 53.2 in Leicester. Blackburn with Darwen remains the leading authority in the country, with 85.9 cases per 100,000

Cases in Oldham appear to be striking people between the age of 20 and 40 years old more than would be expected. Pictured: People in the town centre on July 28

Cases in Oldham appear to be striking people between the age of 20 and 40 years old more than would be expected. Pictured: People in the town centre on July 28

Official NHS statistics show 119 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the week up to July 25 - a four-fold increase from the week before. Pictured: People in the town centre yesterday

Official NHS statistics show 119 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the week up to July 25 – a four-fold increase from the week before. Pictured: People in the town centre yesterday

Councillors in Oldham are keen to prevent a local lockdown like that seen in Leicester, and have ramped up restrictions to curb growing cases

Councillors in Oldham are keen to prevent a local lockdown like that seen in Leicester, and have ramped up restrictions to curb growing cases

According to official statistics, cases in Oldham have risen by 191 per cent in the past seven days. 

THE 10 PLACES WITH THE HIGHEST INFECTION RATE IN ENGLAND

  1. Blackburn with Darwen: 85.9 
  2. Oldham: 54.3
  3. Leicester: 53.2 
  4. Bradford: 45.1
  5. Trafford: 36.8
  6. Rochdale: 32.7
  7. Sandwell: 30.9
  8. Calderdale: 28.6
  9. Manchester: 22.1
  10. Kirklees: 19.8

NHS figures up to July 26

Some 128 people were diagnosed in the borough between July 20 and 26, according to the NHS. 

Trafford, located on the other side of Greater Manchester, has also seen a 235 per cent rise in cases over the past seven days. 

It has the fifth highest infection rate in England (36.8 per 100,000), with Manchester in ninth position (22). 

Katrina Stephens, the director of public health in Oldham, said the spike was not due to more testing but a ‘genuine increase’ in transmission, Manchester Evening News reported. 

The central and western districts have mostly been affected, and there are ‘increasingly’ cases in the younger population, particularly among 20 to 40-year-olds, Ms Stephens said at a media briefing yesterday.

A significant proportion of recent cases involve multiple individuals testing positive within a household. 

Councillor Arooj Shah confirmed they had seen a rise in cases among Oldham’s Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, which account for up to two thirds of overall new cases, New Post Leader reported.

Around 20 per cent of Oldham’s population are from Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage, compared to the 2.8 per cent average in England and Wales.

TEN PEOPLE CATCH CORONAVIRUS IN PUB WHERE 200 DRINKERS WERE CRAMMED INTO BEER GARDEN 

Ten people have caught coronavirus at a pub in a market town where up to 200 drinkers were filmed crammed into beer garden ‘like sardines’.

Punters and staff who were at the Crown and Anchor in Stone, Staffordshire, between July 16 and 18 are now being told to urgently get swabs done.

Anyone who has been in close contact with visitors to the pub is being encouraged to have a test at a new centre set up 350 yards away at the Crown Street car park.

And people who were out in Stone on one of those nights who have since displayed symptoms despite not going to the pub have also been told told to get a test.

One customer at the pub – which has now shut due to overcrowding – who tested positive is also said to have held a private gathering, causing a further spread.

It is known people of an ethnic minority background are at a higher risk of catching Covid-19, and the reasons for this are still being investigated.

There are a number of ideas about why people from black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) backgrounds have been harder hit by the coronavirus.

These include that they are more likely to live in poverty, have lower-paid jobs, and live in densely-populated areas of cities and towns, all of which raise the risk of coming into contact with other people who may carry the disease.

Along with other towns with a large Asian population suffering elevated infection rates, public officials and local politicians say large families, often living in small terraced houses and looking after elderly relatives at home, explain the ethnic population’s vulnerability to the disease. 

There is also concern the way public health messaging is being communicated to areas where English may not be the first language. 

Blackburn with Darwen, which is also under tighter coronavirus restrictions to prevent a local lockdown, has also seen the majority of new cases in ethnic minorities.

The day after the council announced new rules, on July 14, a local health chief revealed a staggering 85 per cent of the new Covid-19 infections were among the South Asian population.

Ms Shah said the new guidelines in Oldham may be ‘particularly tough’ for the Muslim community who were preparing to celebrate Eid on Friday.

She added: ‘We haven’t got any concerns about people not adhering to guidelines around Eid. I have to stress this isn’t anything to do with behavioural issues.’ 

Religious leaders have reportedly been given ‘robust’ measures in place to support people with the latest advice.

‘There are no concerns around enforcement and we haven’t had a need for that so far, that’s not the approach we’re trying to use,’ Ms Shah said.

How cases of Covid-19 have risen in Oldham up until 19 July

How cases of Covid-19 have risen in Oldham up until 19 July  

The government had dropped Oldham from its most recent watch list of areas of concern, based on data between 13 July and 19 July

The government had dropped Oldham from its most recent watch list of areas of concern, based on data between 13 July and 19 July

Health chiefs are now preparing to launch door-to-door coronavirus testing in some of the hardest hit areas from next week. 

£4MILLION FUNDING TO INVESTIGATE BAME AND COVID-19 LINK 

Scientists have been given £4.3million to investigate why black and Asian people are more likely to die from Covid-19.

UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health Research have funded six new research projects which will examine the link between coronavirus and ethnicity.

Emerging evidence suggests BAME (black and minority ethnic) people are nearly twice as likely to die of Covid-19 than those who are white, after taking into account the age of the individuals and other sociodemographic factors.

The projects are described here:

  • One will explore the impact of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, specifically on migrant and refugee groups.
  • Another will look for ways to create targeted, digital health messages with help from key voices within BAME communities.
  • The £2.1 million UK-Reach project, which received the largest proportion of the fund, will calculate the risk of contracting and dying from Covid-19 for ethnic minority healthcare workers. 
  • One of the research projects will seek to determine the risk of infection and death from Covid-19 in individual ethnicity groups, combining more than 40million patient GP records in England to create one of the largest Covid-19 cohorts in the UK.
  • Another project will use data from the UK Biobank, which contains biomedical information of 500,000 individuals, to examine whether the increased risk of developing severe Covid-19 in minority ethnic groups can be explained by differences in health status, lifestyle behaviours such as physical activity, and environmental factors such as social inequality.
  • The final research project aims to help enable the designers of clinical trials to consider the factors that may reduce the inclusion of BAME participants, such as culture, or trial information and procedures. 

The approach has been used in Leicester for the first time during the pandemic. The NHS Test and Trace chief Baroness Dido Harding said it takes testing where it is ‘needed most’.

To limit further spread, Oldham’s council is telling people to avoid contact with others as much as possible and not to invite people into the home.

It puts Oldham at odds with the rest of England, after lockdown rules were relaxed earlier this month to let people to stay overnight with loved ones. 

Ms Shah said yesterday: ‘We know people across Oldham desperately want to see their friends and family, and get back to normal.

‘But these restrictions are essential if we are to stop the spread of coronavirus and prevent a strict local lockdown being put in place, as we have seen elsewhere in the country.’ 

Everyone living in the Greater Manchester borough has been asked to keep two metres apart from friends and family when seeing them outside.

Current government advice for the rest of the nation recommends a one metre-plus rule — but people should keep two metres apart where possible.

People are still allowed to meet in groups of six as long as everyone is socially distanced and outdoors – which are current national guidelines.

And gatherings larger than six ‘should only take place if everyone is exclusively from two households or support bubbles,’ Ms Shah has reminded Oldham residents. 

Non-essential shops, pubs, restaurants, cafes and hairdressers are still open. But are at risk of closure if national health officials deem it necessary in the coming weeks. 

Blackburn with Darwen, which has also seen the majority of new cases in ethnic minorities, is also under tighter coronavirus restrictions to prevent a local lockdown. 

Several other places in England are under the careful watch of health officials who are trying to squash cases.  

‘Areas of intervention’ –  where there is divergence from the measures in place in the rest of England because of the significance of the spread – include Leicester, Oadby and Wigston, Blackburn and Darwen, and Luton. 

A range of measures might be introduced in an area of intervention if officials think it is necessary, such as restriction of travel for anyone other than key workers.

An ‘area of concern’ is the lowest level on the watchlist. It includes Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Northampton, Peterborough, Rochdale, Rotherham and Wakefield. 

The government had dropped Oldham from its most recent watch list of areas of concern, based on data between 13 July and 19 July.

Infections fell slightly during that week. Data shows the town’s cases have fluctuated up and down during July.

According to the most recent data, some of authorities with the highest infection rates are not seeing cases slow down. 

Sandwell, Calderdale and Manchester have each seen an uptick of more than a fifth. 

PLACES IN ENGLAND THAT HAVE TOUGHER COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS

The following locations have restrictions in place which are different to those set out across the whole of England. 

Oldham, Greater Manchester

Tuesday July 28 

  • Residents are being told they cannot have ‘social visitors’ to their home.
  • People must keep two metres away from friends and family if they see them outside, avoiding hugging and shaking hands.
  • Care homes will not relax restrictions on visiting to protect older and vulnerable people.    

Friday July 31

  • Vulnerable and elderly people who have been shielding have been asked to to continue to do so for another two weeks.

Blackburn with Darwen 

Tuesday July 14

  • Five new measures were introduced for all residents; reducing the numbers allowed to visit households to two; asking residents to wear a face covering in all enclosed public spaces; encouraging people to be tested; asking people to only bump elbows rather than handshake; stepping up advice and support to small shops to keep them safe. 

Saturday July 25

  • The Department of Health said new regulations will be signed by the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to make Blackburn exempt from the national lockdown changes – the opening of indoor gyms, pools, and other sport and exercise facilities.  

Leicester

Monday June 29

  • People were asked to continue to follow stricter lockdown restrictions for at least two weeks in a ‘local lockdown’.
  • Non-essential shops were asked to close after re-opening on June 15.
  • The city’s bars, restaurants and hairdressers did not open on July 4 as planned. 

Thursday July 16

  • Health Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock announced that lockdown measures in Leicester City had to stay in place for another two weeks. It meant the measures introduced in the rest of the England to open the hospitality sector would not apply in Leicester.

Saturday July 18

  • Additional lockdown restrictions ended in Charnwood and Blaby on 18 July. These areas have returned to national social distancing guidelines. 
  • In Leicester City, and the Borough of Oadby and Wigston, non-essential shops, schools and educational settings can now reopen. Single-adult households can still form a support bubble with one other household. People are still able to meet in a group of up to six and only outdoors, provided they follow strict social distancing.

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