Change of message ‘too early’ for North West

Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram have written to the Prime Minister warning that the government’s change of coronavirus message comes ‘too early’ for the North West.

The Mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region were responding to the Independent Sage group of scientists, led by former Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King, who suggested that changes to the guidance announced were ‘dangerous’ and that the country would ‘inevitably see a more rapid return of local epidemics and face the prospect of further partial or national lockdowns’.

Both Burnham and Rotheram expressed concern about the substance of what was announced by Boris Johnson, and are calling on the government to publish the 'R' reproduction rate at a regional and sub-regional level to enable authorities and people to make informed decisions based on local risk.

Their letter said: "Here in the North West, we experienced the highest number of new cases last week and are not yet on the clear downward trajectory seen in other parts of the country. For that reason, we are concerned that the decision to relax the Stay at Home message may have come too early for the North West and could expose our residents to higher levels of risk of infection."

The mayors argue that publishing the 'R' number, denoting the rate of reproduction of the virus, at a regional and sub-regional level on a regular basis, will allow people and public authorities to "make informed decisions about the risk and help decide whether they wish to take a more cautious approach to the relaxation of the lockdown rules, given the risk locally."