Oldham's council leader has urged the Government not to impose local lockdown measures on the Greater Manchester town, warning such a move would have “catastrophic” consequences for its economy.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday, Labour council leader Sean Fielding said local officials were "strongly making the case" to ministers that rolling out restrictions on the area would "not be the right solution" for tackling a recent spike in Covid-19 cases.
The Government is expected to decide on Thursday whether to order the closure of bars, restaurants and gyms in the town, which has one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in England despite restrictions on social visits imposed three weeks ago.
Mr Fielding told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that "raw" caseload numbers may suggest Oldham's Covid-19 outbreak is at a similar stage to the one seen in Leicester when it was the first city put into local lockdown at the end of June, with its infection rate at the time at 135 cases per 100,000 people.
The latest validated figure for Oldham is 83.1 cases per 100,000 people in the week to 15 August, down from 109.7 a week earlier based on Public Health England data published on August 18 on the Government’s coronavirus online dashboard.
“However we’re strongly making the case up here in Oldham that would not be the right solution for the wave of the pandemic that we’re seeing in Oldham,” Mr Fielding said.
He argued “household transmission” was driving infections up in the area, with most cases recorded among the working age population and little increase in hospital admissions or deaths.
“We already have youth unemployment of 9.5 per cent and 15 per cent of unemployment generally so it would be really, really catastrophic for businesses and for the working age population in Oldham if there were to be a local lockdown,” he said.
“It’s different to Leicester because Leicester never really properly reopened, this could be hundreds of businesses that have made themselves Covid-secure, spent money in doing so, reopened, traded for a short time, being asked to close again and the likelihood is many of those having done all of that would simply not be able to reopen once the restrictions are lifted again.”
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock refused to rule out a local lockdown for Oldham to counteract rising coronavirus cases in the area.
He told BBC News on Wednesday: “Places like Oldham where we are now seeing the number of cases rise, we have to take the same localised approach, working very closely with the local council and make sure we get both the messages to the public and also the rules right in place and the resources, like the testing resources, to get a grip on it in all the areas where there is an outbreak, including Oldham.”
Oldham, which is situated about 10 miles north-east of Manchester, is one of a number of areas currently affected by local Covid-19 restrictions rolled out across areas of the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester in response to a recent rise in infection transmission rates there.
Households in the areas affected are prohibited from mixing indoors - unless they are in a support bubble - and limits on the number of people permitted to meet outside are also in place.
Venues including casinos, bowling alleys and conference halls were meanwhile not permitted to reopen on Saturday in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire or Leicester despite being allowed to reopen their doors in other parts of England following a two-week delay.