The Government will announce this morning whether Oldham will be subjected to a full lockdown but it is understood that while they may be stricter social distancing measures the area may avoid a full economic lockdown along with other areas Blackburn with Darwen and Pendle.
Oldham Council leader Sean Fielding has warned against a full lockdown believing that a local lockdown would not be practical and would be disastrous in what is already a fragile economy.
Earlier this week he said that the pandemic is being spread in households, it has not been brought into those households from people going to the pub or going for meals but from people who were working in businesses that never closed down in the first wave.
Oxford University Professor Carl Heneghan says that The government is wrong in focusing on the number of cases in the Borough
“If I look at the number of people in hospital right now, there are about 1,250 people across the Pennine trust; only nine of them have COVID-19 in a bed today … the virus at the moment is circulating at a low level. Oldham should be allowed to let their test and trace system function and get to work.”
It is understood that stricter social distancing measures such as precluding people from meeting in outdoor areas such as parks could be one of the options introduced.
