Join us from 3.00pm as Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham is joined by Sir Richard Leese, Deputy Mayor and Chair of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partneship; Cllr Elise Wilson, GMCA Lead for the Economy; and Prof Kate Ardern, Lead Director of Public Health for Health Protection and Emergency Planning, to discuss the latest on Greater Manchester’s response to the impact of the current coronavirus outbreak.
Sir Richard Leese begins the Press Conference.All of the ten districts have published their local plans and have submitted them to the Government.
All indicators he says are going in the right directions.The data he says is still not perfect but is getting better by the day he says.
Leicester has got everybody looking deeply at their figures but he gives reassurance to our region.Leicester showed 135 positive cases per 100,000 people, In Greater Manchester it is 13.3,Rochdale is the highest with Trafford the lowest
Professor Kate Ardern says the figures, while on the way down, show that we must not be complacent -She is asking people to stick to the Public Health regulations in order to prevent the region having to go into lockdown
Councillor Elise Wilson welcomes the reopening of some of our hospitality and how dependent the region is on this sector.
Andy Burnham’s message as we move to the weekend is to stay local of possible and approach the weekend with the fact that we are still in a critical pandemic situation.
We are now to Questions
Given Leicester’s experience are there currently, any parts of Greater Manchester which you believe may currently be in imminent danger of a Leicester style lock down?
No is the answer to the question but I am not complacent says Andy Burnham-We are going in the opposite direction to Leicester he adds.We are seeking clarification from the Government on what thresholds there would be for intervention
Sir Richard adds that using the seven day rolling average a month ago we were in a similar position but today the City of Manchester is 12 and Leicester is 86
With Bars & Restaurants re-opening this weekend, do you see this impacting on local COVID figures and the possibility of a local lockdown?
Andy says it is more likely to push the figures up and the easing will present risks-It will depend on how we react in particular to social distancing-“we want to be on the front foot in GM-I will do everything I can to prevent a local lockdown
Downing Street has said that Public Health England has shared ‘local data’ with councils since April. Also said that since 11 June, an operational dashboard has been made available by NHS Digital which included counts of local tests, total positive cases and test and trace data to give local authorities a clear picture of the statistics in their areas. Is this the case in your view?and if so, what other info did you need that you haven’t had?
All of the data sources have come late and it is only in the last two weeks have we received level two testing says Sir Richard Leese.We don’t have data by gender,occupation, age or ethnicity nor do we have postcode-We have been promised it he adds within days
How are you making sure that settings such as factories and warehouses are sticking to social distancing rules?
I don’t think the Government has had a grip on this situation from Day One says Andy.The national guidance is too vague and gives too many get out clauses
Kate Adern says all businesses have been advised of the track and trace system.Plans at a local level involve trading standards in all 10 local authorities.
What’s the latest with the Nightingale Hospital in Manchester? Is it still in use for COVID19 patients? Some others across the country are being repurposed into cancer testing centres – are there any plans for anything like that here?
Sir Richard says it is being held in reserve until next March to maintain capacity through the winter.
Many residents in Rochdale are very concerned to read that the borough’s infection rate is the highest in Greater Manchester. Are you confident that measures from GMCA together with Rochdale Borough Council will be able to contain Covid-19 in the borough? What steps will GMCA be making together with Rochdale Borough Council to prevent a local lockdown in Rochdale?
Andy says that he is confident that Rochdale can be managed and points out that rates are falling -We are in a position that we are ahead of it, it is in the hands of the public
Kate points out that there has been a lot of testing in Rochdale,its walk in town centre testing centre opened on the 8th June and she has confidence in Rochdale’s response
