Jeremy Hunt has slammed Boris Johnson‘s government for taking ‘far too long’ to implement targeted coronavirus virus testing in Leicester.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the former Health Secretary claimed mass coronavirus testing could reduce the likelihood of local lockdowns.
His intervention comes as the East Midlands city was placed under harsher restrictions by Matt Hancock this week, with non-essential shops ordered to close and people urged to travel in or out of the area, amid a spike in cases.
‘Why did we not just immediately test the whole city population? And why are we not doing this now in Bradford and Barnsley?,’ Mr Hunt wrote.
‘The quicker we identify asymptomatic carriers, the less likely whole cities will have to be locked down.’
Jeremy Hunt, the former Health Secretary, has slammed Boris Johnson’s government for taking ‘far too long’ to implement targeted coronavirus virus testing in Leicester
His intervention comes as Leicester was placed under harsher restrictions by Matt Hancock this week amid a spike in cases (pictured, members of the 7th Regiment running the Levington Leisure Centre Covid-19 testing facility in the East Midlands city)
Earlier this week, Bradford has said it is ‘working hard’ to prevent another lockdown and Barnsley has stressed new restrictions are not needed, as figures revealed they have the highest Covid-19 rates in England after Leicester.
The latest data showed Bradford has 69.4 cases per 100,000 population, the second highest in England behind Leicester with 140.2.
And Barnsley is third in the table with 54.7 cases per 100,000.
Mr Hunt, now chairman of the health and social care committee, said the Test and Trace system ‘will fail’ unless a way of reaching infected people is found.
He wrote: ‘Even if cases overall continue to fall, we will not have the resilience we need for a potential second wave this winter.
‘How do we solve this? The first thing we need is a massive public information campaign telling anyone with Covid symptoms – whether repeated coughing, fever, loss of taste or smell or any combination of these – to get a test immediately.’
Mr Hunt told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme this week that local lockdowns will become the ‘new normal’ until a vaccine is found.
He added that Leicester’s lockdown wouldn’t be a ‘one-off occurrence’ and hoped ‘lessons would be learned for other cities’.
Mr Hunt said: ‘We know that the NHS Test and Trace process was going to take until the end of June before it could fully get local public health officers and local authorities on board and co-ordinated with their efforts.
Members of the 7th Regiment are running the Levington testing facility in Leicester as a Public Health England report said that the increase in cases could be due to increased testing
In Leicester its city centre has been shut down and schools closed due to a spike in cases
The Leicester lockdown zone, which has left some in lockdown while their neighbours are not
Pictured: Data shows how Leicester’s coronavirus outbreak has grown over time
‘We’re now at that point, so I think there will be things when it comes to other cities and similar situations that happen more smoothly.
‘We have shown that we’re prepared to react quickly and decisively when there is an outbreak and let’s hope we can get through this in Leicester quickly.’
It comes as official figures released yesterday claimed that around 3,600 people are still getting infected with coronavirus every day.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data suggests 25,000 people across the country currently have Covid-19, or one in 2,200 people (0.04 per cent of the population) – a huge drop on the 51,000 active cases the week before.
But the same data shows the virus is spreading at a slightly quicker rate, with an estimated 25,000 new cases in the week ending June 27 – up from the 22,000 infections occurring in the community the week before.
ONS statisticians, who made their projection based on swab testing of 25,000 people, warned the speed at which the outbreak is declining has ‘levelled off’.
The estimate is in line with Public Health England and Cambridge University academics, who claimed up to 3,000 people are still getting infected each day.
This included 1,000 in the Midlands, which is home to Leicester – the first UK city to be hit by a ‘local lockdown’. Their estimate is based on modelling of based on death data, antibody surveillance sampling and mobility reports.
But both guesses are much higher than the one by King’s College London scientists, who believe around 1,200 people are being struck down each day.
Ministers are thought to have ruled out imposing further local lockdowns imminently, though they will monitor testing data from hotspots this weekend.
A source told The Telegraph: ‘We’re focusing on what happens after Saturday rather than what comes before it. The focus is on getting Leicester under control rather than locking anywhere else down. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the near future, it all depends on what happens to the data.’
Another said: ‘In places like Kirklees, Enfield and Weston, it does feel like identifying local outbreaks early and taking action seems to be working.
‘In Weston… we closed the hospital to new admissions, tested and retested all patients and staff, isolated everyone who tested positive, a deep clean of the hospital. We worked well with the council and they increased access to testing.’