By Tony O’Riley-
There will be no further fiscal support provided to Greater Manchester in a bid to encourage the region to accept Tier 3 proposals.
Downing Street said a generous support package of support has already been put forward to local authorities.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “You can see the package of support which we have put forward, it is a generous package of support to local authorities because we do recognise that these measures will have a huge impact on people’s lives.
“As the Chancellor set out earlier this week, local authorities placed into different tiers will receive extra financial support on a per capita basis to support their local areas and local public health teams with the response, whether that is more enforcement, compliance or contact tracing.
“And for local authorities at that High or Very High level, we are supporting public health and local economic initiatives with up to £465 million.
“To protect services we’re also providing around £1 billion of additional funding for local authorities on top of the £3.7 billion that we’ve already provided since March.”
The chief medical officer for Wales is preparing “fresh advice” to people previously on the shielding list in Wales, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.
“I doubt that it will be to suggest to them that they go back to the measures that were expected of them earlier in the summer, where they were advised not go out at all, even for exercise,” Mr Drakeford said.
“We know that was a very, very big ask to people and it came with harms of its own in terms of loneliness, isolation and people’s sense of mental health and wellbeing and so on.
“But the context is changing and I think the chief medical officer will want to make sure that those people who were on the shielded group get the benefit of updated advice from him.”
Sage has said it is “almost certain that the epidemic continues to grow exponentially across the country, and is confident that the transmission is not slowing”.
It added: “There is no clear evidence that the epidemic’s trajectory has changed in the past month.”
The estimates for R and the growth rate are provided by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), a sub-group of Sage.
The growth rate, which estimates how quickly the number of infections is changing day by day, is between plus 4% and plus 7% for the UK as a whole.
Sage also said the figures published on Friday more accurately represent the average situation over the past few weeks rather than the present situation. The reproduction number, or R value, of coronavirus transmission across the UK still remains above 1.
Data released on Friday by the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) shows the estimate for R for the whole of the UK is between 1.3 and 1.5.
R representing the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect. An outbreak can grow exponentially when the figure for R is above 1.
An R number between 1.3 and 1.5 means that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 13 and 15 other people.
Luciano’s, Springslite Gym and the Rooftop Bar will shut indefinitely from Monday after trade plummeted once the Government imposed tough new restrictions on the hospitality trade.
Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said it is hoped that a circuit-breaker in Wales would give the “breathing space” needed to get through to Christmas “without further disruptions of this sort”.
“It is very important to say a circuit-breaker is not a magic wand of any sort – it doesn’t make coronavirus disappear,” Mr Drakeford said.
“What it does is to buy us time to be able to manage the difficulties we face over a longer period, and in a better planned way.
“Our ambition is that if we do, and it’s still an if, if we do decide on a circuit-breaker, that will be sufficient to take us through to Christmas.”
The public health directors for Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool made a joint plea to the public to stick to the rules after the area was put into Tier 3.
Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Professor Dominic Harrison and Dr Arif Rajpura said: “We are at a very dangerous phase of the pandemic.
“Infection rates are going up across Lancashire, hospitals are getting busier and people are quite frankly sick of coronavirus and just want life to return to normal.
“That’s something we all want, but we have to level with you – it isn’t happening any time soon. All of our lives have been affected by coronavirus and will continue to be so until we have a vaccine. Now that Lancashire has entered Tier 3 the next month is critical to getting the virus under control.
“In the meantime, as public health professionals we have a responsibility to do all we can to protect the people of Lancashire and we are working night and day to do so.
“But you also have a role to play as well to protect yourself, your family and your community. By sticking to the restrictions – even though we know it’s hard – and following the simple guidance around hands, face and space you will help limit the spread of coronavirus.”