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Is Leicester going into local lockdown? Latest updates
29 June 2020, 15:25
As it is reported that Leicester could become the first area of the UK to go into a local lockdown, we take a look at the facts.
The weekend has been rife with stories that Leicester could be put on a local lockdown following a spike of COVID-19 in the area.
The Prime Minister has since said he is "concerned" about the city, and stressed to people that "we are not out of the woods yet".
But will Leicester go into lockdown and has anything been confirmed?
As of today, Leicester has not gone into a local lockdown and the Government have not confirmed any plans to do so.
However, today, the Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, has revealed he received an email from the Government in the early hours of the morning with recommendations that the city should stay under the current lockdown rules for another two weeks.
Speaking on what the email said, Sir Peter said: "Not very much, all of the dramatic stuff about local lockdown has diminished to two more weeks of present restrictions, perhaps.
“The report itself doesn’t give any good reason why we should do that and is obviously written by someone who doesn’t know the city.”
A meeting between the Mayor and Government was meant to go ahead Monday morning at 9AM, but it was cancelled and later rescheduled for 1:30PM.
Talking to the Mirror online Monday morning, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "We are concerned about Leicester. We're concerned about any local outbreak.
"And I want to stress to people that we are not out of the woods yet."
He went on: "It's very important that we're making these cautious, calibrated steps. We're opening as much of hospitality as we can on July 4, opening as much of the economy as we can - some things, alas, still being closed until they can become Covid-secure.
"But to make all that possible we have to remain vigilant, we have to continue to do the basics, washing our hands and all that, plus we need to have local lockdowns and local 'whack-a-mole' strategies where necessary."
Updates are expected to follow, but if the local lockdown does happen, pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will not be able to reopen on July 4 in the area as they will across the rest of England.
