Lincolnshire public health chief warns that COVID-19 danger is not over after Leicester lockdown

Lincolnshire County Council’s director of public health, Derek Ward, pointed to the local lockdown imposed on Leicester, along with spikes elsewhere in the world such as Beijing, parts of the USA and areas of India, as proof that the danger has not passed.

Leicester saw a rise of 900 cases in just two weeks, while Lincolnshire has recorded 38 so far this month – just 4.2 per cent of the city’s figure.

However, the Government has now bowed to pressure from public health officials nationwide to release the full testing statistics for every area, which could significantly change the picture.

Mr Ward said: "We would expect a significant number of people will have tested positive in Lincolnshire through the Showground and the mobile testing units."

The final weekend in June saw one new COVID-19 related death in the county and one further case confirmed, bringing the totals to 144 deaths and 1,149 cases.

Mr Ward said: “It’s a tragedy that people are still dying from COVID, but the numbers are low, and have certainly gone lower over the past month so that’s great.

“But the disease hasn’t gone away, and we need to keep that message in the forefront of people’s minds, because we’ve seen spikes all over the world – in some places where they thought that got on top of it.”

He said it was unlikely, however, Lincolnshire would see a spike similar to Leicester, adding that currently the county was “seeing specific complex cases” such as children or teachers at school or those in care homes.

The caveat, he said, was to see what happened with the sunny weather and everyone “flocking to the coast”.

As lockdown restrictions have gradually lifted on businesses and shops, there has but no obvious spikes in cases recorded in recent weeks.

Mr Ward said the evidence he had seen so far, however, had shown people in masks and respecting social distancing as much as possible.

He added that people should try to stick to two metres if possible, despite new government advice, and remember hand washing.