Leeds Council leader Judith Blake hits out at Government over testing after Leeds enters Covid local lockdown

Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds city council, said that new lockdown restrictions may not be enough to halt the spread of the virus on their own.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Saturday, she said: “We know that the restrictions themselves won’t just work on their own, it has to come as part of a whole raft of measures.

“The important message that we know from other areas is there is a lot of confusion, a lack of clarity, particularly in areas where there are different rules in one borough and the next-door borough has another one.

“This has to be a wake-up call to people.

“If things carry on the way they are then I can’t see how the Government won’t be forced to take more measures that have more of an impact on our lives, on our ability to go out and do the things we need to do to keep the economy going.”

She added that if the Government provided more testing the city could manage the situation better locally.

She said: “What we are also saying to Government is we need more local testing capacity, trying to get across to government that if they give us the resource to do things locally we can do a much better job than a national programme run outside the city.”

Cllr Blake told BBC Breakfast the local authority was working with the city’s five universities but it was difficult because new students wanted to socialise.

She added: “This is difficult, students arriving in Leeds for the first time, they don’t know people here so they are obviously going to want to mix and socialise.

“The situation in Manchester overnight and in Scotland will help focus some minds, and help us to get the message out about what has to be done to make sure we contain the virus.”

-> Local lockdown Leeds: rules explained and your questions answered as new restrictions in placeDeaths may rise to 100 a day, says disease expert

Infectious disease modelling expert Professor Graham Medley warned there would be 100 coronavirus deaths a day in a few weeks’ time.

Prof Medley, who attends meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The treatments have improved, the way the virus is transmitting is going to be different, but nonetheless it is a dangerous virus and inevitably it will lead to some deaths.

“Now whether it is as many – in February and March we were essentially assuming 1% of infections would lead to deaths. Now even if that is 0.8% ,which I think would be a great success in terms of treatment, it still means that we are going to see deaths increase.

“At a level of 10,000 (cases) we are seeing now, means that in three or four weeks we are going to see 100 deaths a day.

“In order to stop that process increasing again, then we need to make sure that that transmission comes down now because that doubling time will carry on. The things that we do now will not stop 100 people dying a day but they will stop that progressing much higher.”

He also said he had “never heard” the 10pm curfew for hospitality discussed during Sage meetings.

-> Leeds News Live: Covid infection rate climbs as local lockdown starts today