Birmingham lockdown – Ban on households meeting indoors in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull after virus cases spiral
A BAN on households meeting indoors in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull will come into force next week after coronavirus cases in the area spiralled.
The strict new measures will affect around 1.5 million people when they come into place on Tuesday.
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The ramped-up rules mean a ban on different households meeting indoors in the three West Midlands areas – except for those in a support bubble.
Residents will still be allowed to visit restaurants and pubs with members of their own household – but will not be able to meet others while there.
The West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, announced the new measures this afternoon as the region’s R rate stood between 1.0 and 1.5.
He said: “The following areas will now be escalated to an area of national intervention, with a ban on people socialising with people outside their own household.
“The ban will take effect from Tuesday 15th September, but residents are advised to avoid household mixing before then as it has been identified as one of the drivers of transmission.”
He added: “So to emphasise, this is about mixing between households, it is not about prevention of schools, workplaces, transport, any of the other options – it is about household mixing.”
A legally-enforced crackdown on businesses breaching Covid-19 restrictions is still in place.
But the leader of Birmingham City Council, Ian Ward, said the new rules will not stop people socialising altogether.
He explained: “I understand that it may be frustrating that you can go to the pub but not see your family, but the data we have shows that the infection rate has risen mainly due to social interactions, particularly private household gatherings.
“So people can still go out to shops and to restaurants and other venues that are open, though not with other households.
“Remember to be vigilant; if a venue doesn’t look safe and you are not asked for your contact details, take your business elsewhere.”
BIRMINGHAM SPIKE
It comes following a spike in cases in the UK’s second city.
According to NHS Digital data, the latest seven-day infection rate for Birmingham to September 8 showed 78.2 cases per 100,000 with 892 cases over the period – among the highest in the city since April’s peak.
For the previous seven-day period, the rate was just over 30.
It puts Birmingham third in a national table of local authority areas of highest infection rates, behind Bolton and Sunderland.
Bolton’s seven-day rate currently stands at 143 cases per 100,000, and Sunderland is on 84, according to data from NHS Digital.
Solihull’s latest infection rate for the week ending September 8 was 62.8 per 100,000, while Sandwell has battled with stubbornly high infection rates for weeks.
Explaining where the new measures will apply, Cllr Ward said: “From Tuesday September 15, Birmingham residents will not be able to mix with any other households, indoors or in private gardens, except for those in a support bubble.
“This restriction will apply both inside and outside the city boundary.
“If you live in the city boundary, you cannot mix with another household outside the city boundary.
“If you live in the affected area, in order to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, you must not host people you do not live with in your home or garden, unless they’re in your support bubble.”
He added: “You must not meet people who do not live with, in their home or garden, whether inside or outside of the affected area, unless in your support bubble.”
RISE IN CASES
There are currently 68 patients undergoing treatment across Birmingham – and seven of them, aged 40 to 75, are in intensive care in Queen Elizabeth and Heartlands hospitals.
Dr David Rosser, chief executive at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), said that even with local measures, cases are still likely to rise in Birmingham in the next week.
He told Birmingham Live: “Even if we brought in some sort of social measures today to stop the spread completely we would still expect to see cases double in a week – those people have already got it, they just don’t know it yet.
“We have seen hospital admissions double in a week and I expect it to double in the next week again – it’s an exponential curve. We are in the foothills of that curve.”
Dr Mark Garvey, consultant microbiologist and deputy chief of infection prevention and control for the same trust, said cases have gone up from about ten around two weeks ago, to 23 last week, to 68 this week, of which 32 are actively infected.
He warned: “At our peak we had 708 in-patients at one time, of which about one in six were critically ill. We are seeing the same proportion now.”
‘LINKED TO GATHERINGS’
The city’s director of public health Dr Justin Varney said the uptick in cases was “linked primarily to private household gatherings”, at the end of August and across the bank holiday weekend.
He added that an increase in testing had also turned up more positive results.
Pubs, bars and restaurants flouting contact-tracing rules and social distancing, are also believed to be part of the problem behind rising rates.
The city had previously moved up the rungs of the Government’s Covid watchlist, which ranks local authority areas of concern by infection rate.
It was deemed an area in need of “enhanced support” last month, after recording a seven-day infection rate above 30 per 100,000 people.
Meanwhile, the whole of the Merseyside region was today added to the government’s coronavirus watch list.
Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens were all placed on the danger list following a rise in infection rates across the borough, Liverpool Echo reports.
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It comes after pubs in Bolton were ordered to shut this week, as the city was plunged into its own local lockdown.
Hospitality businesses there are only able to sell takeaways and have to close between 10pm and 5am.
Yesterday, the number of coronavirus cases in the UK rose by 2,919 – meaning a total of 358,138 have now been infected with the bug in Britain.