the City of Leicester with its 340
thousand inhabitants will not be allowed
to ease lockdown restrictions on July
the fourth unlike the rest of England
the decision follows a surge in cases of
coronavirus in the area with over 800
reported in the fortnight to June the
23rd the series of strict measures
outlined in the House of Commons this
evening by the Health Secretary Mike
Hancock include the closure of schools
for most pupils in Leicester from
Thursday from tomorrow
non-essential shops will also closed and
all but essential travel to and from the
city is to be avoided mr. Hancock said
that the government would keep all
measures under review and would not keep
them in place longer than necessary with
the latest here's our health editor Hugh
Pym
Leicester City Centre tonight pubs and
restaurants which have been closed since
lockdown in March all set to reopen on
Saturday along with others in England
but they've now been told they can't
it's very disappointing at the end of
the day we've been gearing up to
reopening for this period I mean it was
announced a couple of weeks ago so
whether it's our colleagues our
suppliers we're all getting together
working out plans working with Health
and Safety about what we're going to be
doing training staff everything and it's
it's just really really disappointing as
well as an extension of existing
restrictions non-essential shops will
have to close from tomorrow and local
schools on Thursday and there's advice
to avoid non-essential travel in and out
of Leicester I'm not surprised because
there are too many people going against
what's been recommended personally I
find it hard cuz I live on my own so
it's going to be another two weeks not
happy about that at all to be honest
because this is happening all over the
country why is the Leicester only place
to be shutting down they're not nowhere
else it was late this evening when the
health secretary came to the Commons to
announce the measures having taken
clinical advice on the actions necessary
and discussed them with the local team
in Leicester and Leicester sure we've
made some difficult but important
decisions we've decided that from
tomorrow
non-essential retail
we'll have to close and as children have
been particularly impacted by this
outbreak schools will also need to close
from Thursday Labour's Health spokesman
himself a Leicester MP said the outbreak
had first been spotted 11 days ago and
the government could have acted sooner
earlier the city mayor who was expecting
the announcement didn't sound totally
convinced I'd been surprised they're
actually it's the government's decided
that it needs to be done in Leicester
because to be honest with you the
statistics while they do show its using
us that they do not show ones that are
so dramatic that we should be singled
out on the other hand if the government
wishes to proceed with their with this
we will live with it testing in the area
picked up the unexpected rise in virus
cases new mobile testing units were
moved into the city over the last few
days to give more detail to officials
right down to local post codes there's
been much speculation about the reasons
for the increase in case numbers inner
city areas with high-density housing
some residents vulnerable will
underlying health conditions are among
factors which have been mentioned one
local councillor said for some South
Asian communities there were language
problems with key health messages as
well as housing challenges when you have
a large family living in the two
three-bedroom house that can create a
huge health issues and that I know for a
fact does have exists in in Leicester
especially in my ward and and this is
due to housing crisis we have a serious
shortage of houses local authorities in
the area will be given extra funding to
enhance communications with residents
but businesses will be wondering what
might compensate them and how long these
new measures will last and he was with
me I'm just wondering he what who made
of this range of measures and what it
tells us about concern in government and
elsewhere about Leicester
well Hugh it certainly goes further than
we expected in the health secretary just
announced it less than an hour ago
in the Commons so people are absorbing
really what he had to say first of all
we hadn't expected this closure of local
schools and non-essential retail this
week
we'd expected an extension of existing
lockdown restrictions beyond Saturday
for two weeks there's no time they've
been set now it'll simply be reviewed so
it could continue and the stats that the
house hoped he used we hadn't heard
before admissions to hospitals running
between six and ten per day in other
areas it's one per day and the infection
rate in Leicester he said was three
times higher than the highest city
equivalent so those stats are pretty
stark I should also say for those
shielding they'd expected a bit of a a
relaxation of the rules from July the
sick that's the most vulnerable with
difficult health conditions that now
won't happen in Leicester on that day
are you picking up any signals from
government or other bodies that they are
concerned for other towns or cities and
that we could see this kind of thing
happening elsewhere well I think the
message is this could happen elsewhere
in England the point being made is
they've tried to tackle local outbreaks
already on a much smaller scale in
Somerset for example a closure of a
hospital this is the first time they've
done it with a big urban conurbation and
a couple of Fringe towns around the edge
of Leicester so a very significant
moment in the handling of this crisis
the point being made is that if you
apply these localised measures based on
testing you don't have to lock everybody
down as we've seen for the last couple
of months so that is a much more
effective tool they think but certainly
not much consolation to the people of
Leicester and businesses there's even
indeed Huw thanks very much again you
pinned there our health editor