Leeds and West Yorkshire will be placed into the most severe “Tier 3” Covid-19 lockdown restrictions after this weekend, writes Richard Beecham.
The announcement was made following talks between the five West Yorkshire council leaders and Government officials this afternoon, and will see the county move into the new measures at 00:01am on Monday, November 2.
Council and hospital chiefs warned that infections had begun to spread to older age groups, which could mean more of a strain to hospitals and public health services.
The measures will be reviewed after 28 days, but the council claims it still does not know the Government’s criteria for exiting lockdown measures.
Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake told a briefing on Thursday evening:
“This is a very difficult decision for anyone to take. We recognise the economic impact it will have. We need to take measures with regard to our hospitals admissions.
“This is a significant moment for Leeds and West Yorkshire in moving forward and tackling the virus.”
Tier 3 restrictions mean individuals must not socialise with anybody they do not live with or have formed a support bubble with, in any indoor setting or in any private garden or at most outdoor hospitality venues.
The rules also state individuals must not socialise in a group of more than six in an outdoor public space such as a park or beach, the countryside, a public garden or a sports venue.
In West Yorkshire, soft play areas, betting shops, car boot sales, casinos will all have to close.
Pubs and bars will be allowed to remain open, but only if they are serving substantial meals.
Gyms will remain open but the advice is against indoor exercise classes.
Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan said £46.6m of additional funding would go towards the five West Yorkshire authorities from government. This will be in addition to the £8-per-head to support test and trace, resulting in £12.7m – and just over £59m in total.
CEO of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust Julian Hartley said:
“On the 23 September, we had 25 Covid patients, today we have 258 Covid patients.
“In a week we have seen an additional 110 patients. We have now exceeded the peak position we were in back in April.
“That level of increase has an impact on how we can manage and run the hospitals. There is a lag of 10-15 days between the rates increasing in community and hospital admissions.
“We need to see a change in infection rates.”
Phil Wood, the trust’s chief medical officer, added:
“Our clinical team has learned an awful lot about how to manage those patients. We are much more equipped to manage it.
“We are able to handle emergency care and complex surgery, but we need to ensure patients are kept safe in our hospitals.
“We need to ensure patients coming in for procedures or before discharge are tested.”
Leeds City Council’s director of public health Victoria Eaton said the rate of infection in the Leeds was still growing among older people.
She added:
“We had a steep increase in young adults which peaked in early October, and we have seen those numbers drop off.
“We are seeing a spilling upwards across age groups. We are seeing increases in over 65 age groups – which is a warning for hospital admissions. We have seen a doubling in the rate for that age group in the past 10 days.
“We must limit the spread from younger to older adults.”
She added a total of 33 of the city’s care homes were currently had Covid infections.
On how long the lockdown would take, Coun Blake said: “It’s for a period of 28 days then the situation will be reviewed. What no one can tell us is exactly what the criteria are for coming out of tier 3. We are pressing the government for clarification.”
She later added: “We got the clarification today, and money for tier 2 will not come out of the pot for tier 2.
“We are extremely concerned for the financial package of support for businesses. We take the health situation very seriously indeed. We will continue to make sure we do everything to help in the weeks ahead.
“We need to keep the vigilance and the same messaging in disrupting the transmission of the virus. Keep social distancing, keep wearing face masks where it is appropriate.
“We want to enhance all of these areas to make sure everyone who has to take on further restrictions can do.”
What’s the plan? The virus isn’t going to magically go away. We need to learn how to live with it surely. The rules won’t stop the virus or prevent people from gathering with their children and parents etc, they’ll just do it secretly. After a lock-down the virus continues it’s journey from host to host (the last lock-down proved that).
I do believe this is creating a nation of law-breakers. Even if the law breaking is slight (a hug for your children, a baby, taking the gathering to seven). How many people have shifting bubbles? Today my bubble is with my 85-year-old Mum. Tomorrow I could say the bubble is with one of my five children and Grandchildren.
I’ve talked to a lot of friends, work colleagues and people on the street who all say they will need to break the rule of six this Christmas. My Mum won’t be kept from her family and we respect her wishes (she knows the risk as do we but she doesn’t understand). I’m her bubble but I work as a bus driver for children with learning difficulties. My two Passenger Assistants and I transport 9 children who need personal care and close interaction. We need to sit them down and get them into safety harnesses, wipe snot, stop spitting etc and even make sure they keep clothing on during the journey. I’m the bubble with my Mum as well as having close contact with a long chain of work related risks (just like Teachers, Classroom Assistants etc). I feel less at risk with everyone on my street than I do at work but the rules say it’s ok to mix with everyone I work with but not my five children who know how to social distance and how to keep clean.
The R-rate is a joke. The D rate seems to make more sense. At least knowing the D rate and the age or health etc of the deceased we can better understand the risk and take personal responsibility
I understand that a lockdown will not stop covid 19 however it will,if we all behave responsibly,give hospitals a chance to reduce the patients already in hospital.
What will be the point of continuing to ignore the rules and ending up with 1000’s of patients trying to get into hospitals and being turned away because there are no beds.
Population of Leeds 792,525 (2019)
3252 have officially had the virus There was a 4.1% increase in the seven days ending 25th October (of tested citizens).
UK Coronavirus Cases are 45,655,031
Deaths where Covid-19 was involved at the time of death (not the absolute cause) are 1,190,233. However, deaths were recorded as Covid deaths regardless. The figures are falsely inflated as a result.
Most young people aren’t experiencing symptoms and I read that for every one person proven to have covid-19 there are 19 undiagnosed. Testing is not acurate.
AROUND 17,000 people die of the flu every year in England, data from Public Health England (PHE) shows.
Flu-related conditions liked pneumonia are some of the biggest killers during the winter.
Pneumonia causes a build-up of fluid and swelling on the lungs and causes 30,000 deaths in the UK each year, the British Lung Foundation has previously stated.
There are around 165,000 cancer deaths in the UK every year, that’s around 450 every day (2015-2017). Cancer Research UK
Data says 33,093,939 have Recovered from Covid 19:
274 newly registered Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours 30/09/2020 but we don’t know if they had underlying health conditions. We only know they died and tests show they were positive for Covid-19.
At this time of year, we would expect an increase in NHS demand. We don’t expect our NHS to be allowing other health conditions to remain untreated. The NHS should be looking after us not the other way around.
In the ideal world everyone would hide away and obey the rules. We don’t live in that world. People do dangerous things unless they believe it will happen to them. The trouble is not everyone believes the same thing