Local lockdown in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire - Discussion

[Bantamzen]

It looks like some restrictions will be lifted from Wednesday 2nd Sep in various areas of the affected areas

E.g. for Kirklees, it looks like restrictions will be lifted throughout, with the exceptions of Dewsbury and Batley

It seems that the wards directly around Bradford, Keighley and Dewsbury will keep the restrictions whilst wards further away will have them lifted.

 

[Crossover]

It seems that the wards directly around Bradford, Keighley and Dewsbury will keep the restrictions whilst wards further away will have them lifted.

Indeed so. I will be out of the restricted area from Wednesday but not by much! Hopefully it is positive news for you

 

[geoffk]

BBC says "the ban on separate households meeting up will be lifted in Stockport, Bolton, Trafford, Burnley and Hyndburn from Wednesday. Parts of Bradford will have restrictions eased except for Bradford city and Keighley town. The changes also mean relaxed rules in Calderdale except for Halifax, and in Kirklees, excluding Dewsbury and Batley."

It's significant that in West Yorkshire the restrictions will now apply to only a part of each local authority area. This has already been done in Lancashire (Blackburn/ Darwen) but Greater Manchester seems to be sticking to an "all or nothing" approach. On the BBC news it was reported that Trafford may have been taken out because of pressure from Tory MPs! So while Ilkley has sensibly been decoupled from inner-city Bradford, the Saddleworth villages will "enjoy" the same restrictions as downtown Oldham.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Wednesday onwards for the "liberated" boroughs. Only a week behind Wigan which suffered from fewer cases than many areas of the UK yet still had to endure restrictions for nearly four weeks.

 

[Scrotnig]

Nobody mentions Leicester any more, who remain under restrictions for a further two weeks despite cases falling lower than some areas with no additional restrictions.

 

[Huntergreed]

Nobody mentions Leicester any more, who remain under restrictions for a further two weeks despite cases falling lower than some areas with no additional restrictions.

They have to pin the blame on somewhere!

 

[SuspectUsual]

Interestingly, Calderdale council (Labour) were informed of the decision at 5.20pm today. Over two hours prior to that, the opposition Conservative group had sent a three page letter to the council leader informing him of their views on how the council should implement the decision.

Nothing like a bit of party politics in a national emergency. I wonder who leaked it to them?

 

[Pete_uk]

Cam in Gloucestershire has Covid rates just about as high as the locked down areas, but no sign of a lock down there..

 

[Bantamzen]

Indeed so. I will be out of the restricted area from Wednesday but not by much! Hopefully it is positive news for you

Thankfully yes, from Wednesday Baildon will no longer be considered "unclean" despite having had no confirmed cases in weeks!

Interestingly, Calderdale council (Labour) were informed of the decision at 5.20pm today. Over two hours prior to that, the opposition Conservative group had sent a three page letter to the council leader informing him of their views on how the council should implement the decision.

Nothing like a bit of party politics in a national emergency. I wonder who leaked it to them?

A cynical person, I mean a really cynical person might suggest that where to lockdown or not to lockdown is more a political than scientific reason. Of course I don't think that, living in an area that is about to be released from the extra restrictions & that has a Tory MP...... Oh, wait...

Cam in Gloucestershire has Covid rates just about as high as the locked down areas, but no sign of a lock down there..

Perhaps you could field that question to their Member of Parliament, Siobhan Baillie? I wonder what party she represents?

 

[Crossover]

A cynical person, I mean a really cynical person might suggest that where to lockdown or not to lockdown is more a political than scientific reason. Of course I don't think that, living in an area that is about to be released from the extra restrictions & that has a Tory MP...... Oh, wait...

In fairness, Dewsbury has a Tory MP (Labour lost it at the last election)

 

[daodao]

...On the BBC news it was reported that Trafford may have been taken out because of pressure from Tory MPs! ...

Yes, more specifically Graham Brady. The Director of Public Health and the Leader of Trafford Council (Andrew Western, who stood against Graham Brady at the recent GE), stated that taking Trafford out of the restrictions is premature, which is a more considered view, based on the case prevalence.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Yes, more specifically Graham Brady. The Director of Public Health and the Leader of Trafford Council (Andrew Western, who stood against Graham Brady at the recent GE), stated that taking Trafford out of the restrictions is premature, which is a more considered view, based on the case prevalence.

And also a view based on more recent data than that which the lifting of restrictions was based on

 

[greyman42]

Wednesday onwards for the "liberated" boroughs. Only a week behind Wigan which suffered from fewer cases than many areas of the UK yet still had to endure restrictions for nearly four weeks.

I thought we would have heard a bit more from Lisa Nandy on Wigan.

 

[30907]

Cam in Gloucestershire has Covid rates just about as high as the locked down areas, but no sign of a lock down there..

Maybe because locking down one small welldefined area of 7000 serves little purpose?

Thankfully yes, from Wednesday Baildon will no longer be considered "unclean" despite having had no confirmed cases in weeks!

Of course I don't think that, living in an area that is about to be released from the extra restrictions & that has a Tory MP...... Oh, wait...

3 out of the 4 Baildon/Shipley areas have been in the 3-9 cases category at some stage during the lockdown period (Baildon South is the exception).

The political coincidence is obvious, but I can make a good public health case both for the blanket lifting of restrictions in Hyndburn and Burnley and the partial lifting in the leafier parts of Bradford (my relative in a leafy part of Keighley might have a different view...).

 

[yorksrob]

Maybe because locking down one small welldefined area of 7000 serves little purpose?


3 out of the 4 Baildon/Shipley areas have been in the 3-9 cases category at some stage during the lockdown period (Baildon South is the exception).

The political coincidence is obvious, but I can make a good public health case both for the blanket lifting of restrictions in Hyndburn and Burnley and the partial lifting in the leafier parts of Bradford (my relative in a leafy part of Keighley might have a different view...).

If locking down an area of 7000 makes little sense, how does locking down a larger area with a similar or lower circulation of the virus make any more ?

 

[Scrotnig]

Only 8 new positive results in the entirety of the city of Leicester yesterday.

Yet still the draconian restrictions continue.

Wouldn't have anything to do with the Labour mayor constantly picking fights with Hancock would it? Of course not, perish the thought that the government might seek to punish the people of a city for electing someone it didn't approve of.

 

[30907]

If locking down an area of 7000 makes little sense, how does locking down a larger area with a similar or lower circulation of the virus make any more ?

Perhaps because it is neither small nor well-defined but, like it or not, part of a conurbation where infection was growing steadily. As I said, there is now a reasonable non-political case for ending restrictions.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

So, when are these latest changes effective from, and what's exactly is now allowed / or about to be allowed in, for example, Stockport, Trafford and Bolton, that wasn't until recently?

 

[Ianno87]

So, when are these latest changes effective from, and what's exactly is now allowed / or about to be allowed in, for example, Stockport, Trafford and Bolton, that wasn't until recently?

Wednesday 2nd September.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Wednesday 2nd September.

Thanks. And what'll be allowed again, then? Can be a tad difficult to keep up on this!

 

[30907]

Thanks. And what'll be allowed again, then? Can be a tad difficult to keep up on this!

Same as rest of country. So you can go to someone's house or garden, or to a pub or restaurant with them (provided you social distance in all cases).

 

[Trackman]

Don’t be holding your breath in Bolton, emergency meeting this morning as cases up from 17.4 to 44.2 per 100k last week. Trafford’s in trouble too, cases have near enough doubled.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Don’t be holding your breath in Bolton, emergency meeting this morning as cases up from 17.4 to 44.2 per 100k last week. Trafford’s in trouble too, cases have near enough doubled.

So exactly what the leader of Trafford council said was happening.

 

[Trackman]

Chart from the MEN website.

 

[jtuk]

Not normalised against testing volumes so completely irrelevant

 

[Richard Scott]

Not normalised against testing volumes so completely irrelevant

In reality do these numbers matter? As we're seeing increased infections are not translating to increased hospital admissions or deaths. More people that have it sooner we can get herd immunity and get on with life. They should see this as a positive!

 

[big_rig]

In reality do these numbers matter? As we're seeing increased infections are not translating to increased hospital admissions or deaths. More people that have it sooner we can get herd immunity and get on with life. They should see this as a positive!

I honestly doubt it. The current criteria will at some point quietly probably join the growing list of ones we no longer talk about (or won't do shortly).

I think the problem all of these targets by which X intervention must happen local or otherwise is that they still have not broken the chain of nonsense which goes back to this graph below, which the powers that be (and people keen on all these second waves) are yet to admit has no link to reality. The first peak is probably something like five or ten times as big as it appears on this graph relative to how it actually does because we weren't testing anywhere near as many people as now. It's garbage in, garbage out and a bit like the reversal they did at PHE with how they counted deaths - they were loading excess deaths at the back end, we are missing out on hundreds of thousands if not millions (antibody studies show 7% of us are meant to have had it, so it is millions) of cases at the front end of the time period.

 

[jtuk]

In reality do these numbers matter? As we're seeing increased infections are not translating to increased hospital admissions or deaths. More people that have it sooner we can get herd immunity and get on with life. They should see this as a positive!

Exactly right, but people wetting the bed over cases on this metric increasing from, say, 20 to 30 while ignoring they've done twice as many tests is ridiculous

 

[Smidster]

Don’t be holding your breath in Bolton, emergency meeting this morning as cases up from 17.4 to 44.2 per 100k last week. Trafford’s in trouble too, cases have near enough doubled.

It seems there is another U-Turn incoming.

Just hours after being "released" from the stricter measures apparently Bolton and Trafford might be returned to where they were.

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

 

[Bantamzen]

It seems there is another U-Turn incoming.

Just hours after being "released" from the stricter measures apparently Bolton and Trafford might be returned to where they were.

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Meanwhile in Bradford, politicians representing wards still under further restrictions are arguing quite the opposite. More evidence that not only is the whole show becoming more political, but demonstrates why fixating on single measures can create more problems that they solve.