Council warns of lockdown if current restrictions aren't followed

An impassioned plea is being made to the residents of Tameside to 'please, please follow the rules' to avoid a continuing rise in Covid cases and a total lockdown.

At a press conference on Friday, Director of Public Health, Tameside, Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy, said the number of cases in the borough had risen to 37 per 100,000 people.

Although far below Oldham’s figures which teeters on the edge of lockdown and are presently 108 per 100,000, the figure is still far above the national three or four cases per 100,000 where the director would ‘feel comfortable’.

The R value has also gone up again across the North West to between 0.8 to 1.1.

The fear is cases will continue to rise following the relaxing of restrictions after lockdown, despite some restrictions being reintroduced across Greater Manchester.

'We are in a concerning space'

The reason given for the increase in numbers in Tameside is being put down to households mixing at home, or different households meeting at indoor venues like pubs and restaurants.

People failing to social distance at two metres distance - or one metre where there are mitigations - is another reason.

“The increase in cases that we are seeing is among the working age of population at the moment,” said Jeanelle.

“It’s a concerning rise across Greater Manchester and in Tameside it is at a level that we could see rise quickly. We are in a concerning space.”

She explained: “We want to encourage and support residents to stick to the basics - wearing masks, keeping your social distance, not mixing with other households, washing hands - because we know it works.

“These are fundamental if we are going to beat the virus - to stop transmission and stop deaths from Covid.”

She added that the virus spreads very quickly and it is where households are mixing that is fuelling this spread, despite the new local restrictions for Greater Manchester - including Tameside - stating that households should not mix in their own homes, gardens or at indoor public venues.

“Where two households meet in a pub or restaurant this is where it can quickly transmit,” said Jeanelle, adding that although cases might be in the working age of population in society, it is a concern that it could quickly be spread to older members of households.

“You can go to a pub as your household, but you shouldn’t be mixing with others in that setting. Unfortunately it looks like people aren’t abiding by that.

“People are abiding by rules in the workplace, but then at the end of the day they might get into the same car or go to the pub.

“It’s in all of our hands now and we know what we need to do to avoid more restrictions, we need to get on and make these work.”

'Another lockdown would be catastrophic' 

This situation is compounded by the fact that some people are asymptomatic so have no idea they are spreading the virus.

Covid has not gone away was the clear message.

For those people who do feel unwell and believe they have contracted Covid, the message remains the same, to self isolate immediately and engage with test and tracing.

Tameside has had mobile testing units operating across the borough where people can get tested based at community centres or at Curzon Ashton on set days as part of a regional effort to increase the number of tests that can be carried out locally.

Cllr Allison Gwynne, Executive Member (Neighbourhoods, Community Safety and Environment), praised Tameside residents for the sacrifices they had made since the lockdown in March which has had such a severe economic, social and mental health impact.

But she urged everyone to play their part.

“People need to carry on doing the right thing,” she said.

“This is a marathon - you are doing it for all of us.

“A lockdown would be catastrophic again for local shops and businesses, groups and organisations.”

She said Tameside Council staff had worked really hard to share information among the business community, ensure behaviours were adhered to and enforce only if absolutely necessary.

The approach had been pragmatic, but swift action had already been taken against those who had breached lockdown measures in the borough ‘and we make no apologies for that,’ added the councillor.

“Throughout lockdown we carried out 200 visits to licensed premises. Now we are receiving complaints from people about some pubs and restaurants and shops breaking the rules and if we find businesses are breaching the regulations we will take action, otherwise we will end up in full lockdown again if we are not careful.”

Authorities now have powers to enforce regulations 

Tameside Council’s head of Environmental Services Sharon Smith pointed out that authorities now have new powers to enforce local regulations, close premises if necessary and stop events - and although most are complying it is clear some are not.

She said the public also needed to comply to help local businesses.

Dr Asad Ali, co-chair of NHS Tameside and Glossop CCG, added: “Covid is still here and the public need to take this very seriously.”

He appealed to residents to ‘please, please’ follow the rules.

“Otherwise you are making it far harder for everyone - especially health professionals - to look after you in every setting and then health staff become ill.” 

Dr de Gruchy added: “The more the number of cases go up the more ultimately hospital cases will go up and we might see more deaths and that’s the real worry. We can not be complacent.”