Coronavirus: Leicester mayor says 90% of city should ‘go free’ from lockdown after data suggests virus surge localised

'I very much regret the fact that the Government didn’t trust us with this data earlier,' says Peter Soulsby

A woman wearing a face mask walks along a steeet of closed shop in Leicester where localised coronavirus lockdown restrictions have been in place since 29 June (PA)

The mayor of Leicester has argued that official data showed that just 10 per cent of the city’s neighbourhoods “have a higher transmission” of coronavirus, after the government said it will review the lockdown as early as Thursday.

The city’s Labour mayor, Peter Soulsby, called on the government to release the “other 90 per cent of the city” currently under lockdown, and said they “should be allowed to go free with the rest of the country”.

Over 330,000 people in Leicester have been locked down for the past two weeks after a resurgence in cases in mid-June. At one point, Leicester accounted for 10 per cent of all new infections in England.

But a report posted by Mr Soulsby on social media on Wednesday showed new neighbourhood data that pointed towards areas with high levels of deprivation in the inner city as the areas most affected by the virus.

Local authorities received the neighbourhood data about Covid-19 testing after “asking for some weeks”, said the mayor, adding that the data shows “it is no longer possible to justify the continuation of the ‘lockdown’ across the remaining 90 per cent of the Greater Leicester area”.

Mr Soulsby told BBC Radio Leicester on Thursday morning that city officials were “finally” told which areas of Leicester were worst-affected by the coronavirus.

“If only we’d had this information in advance, we’d have been able to do what they’re now doing in Blackburn, which is actually working closely with the communities and avoiding having to be locked down,” he said.

“I very much regret the fact that the Government didn’t trust us with this data earlier but I think now we’ve got it, we are the ones well-placed here in the city to make sure that we use it effectively.”

Officials in the city were not given Pillar 2 testing data, which highlighted the growing number of cases within the community, before the lockdown was announced, Mr Soulsby told The Independent earlier this week.

The government will decide later today whether to make changes to the lockdown after examining 14 days of coronavirus data, with health secretary Matt Hancock saying a public announcement will be made “as soon as is reasonably possible”.

Mr Soulsby described the local lockdown as a “blanket political-led lockdown” of the whole of the city, telling Sky News he was angry and frustrated at the government’s handling of the situation.

“Some streets have no issue at all and in other streets nearby you’ve got a major issue, and we needed to know that at the time so we could intervene with pinpoint accuracy.

“Further advice needs to be given, support needs to be given, and we needed to know where that advice and support was needed.”

Authorities in Leicester had “not been involved in any of the decision-making”, he said, adding: “We have been told what the political decisions will be, and we will be told again what the political decision will be – whether or not we come out of it.”