When will lockdown end in Leeds? This is what we know as government plans lockdown exit strategy

Speculation has been mounting about the government's 'exit strategy' for the national lockdown and a decision is due to be made next Monday, February 22.

But last year, not long after national lockdown ended, Leeds was placed into Tier 2 local lockdown restrictions and thereafter was pushed up into the more strict Tier 3.

What will happen in Leeds this time?

The current picture in Leeds is one of a city which has been stuck in some sort of restrictions for over 6 months. Local restrictions began in Leeds in October 2020, after the city was placed into Tier 2.

Leeds stayed in Tier 2 until an announcement of Tier 3 was made, which was superceded by another national lockdown.

That was lifted in December, when Leeds was put into Tier 3, which was then replaced by national lockdown again in January.

So what will happen now?

The current infection rate in Leeds is 176.6 cases per 100,000 people (down from 192), and the percentage of cases testing positive is now 8.6%.

Unfortunately, that rate is still higher than it was before Christmas. In Leeds the rate was 138.3 in the week to December 12.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to be aiming for the current national lockdown to be the last one, as vaccinations continue to be delivered across the country.

In Leeds, more than 100,000 vaccinations have been carried out, and 15 million have been given across the UK.

Boris Johnson has pledged a “cautious but irreversible” approach to easing the lockdown and said no decisions have been made on whether all pupils can return to school at the same time.

The Prime Minister stressed the need to be “very prudent” as ministers begin reviewing coronavirus restrictions in England, while lockdown-sceptical Tory MPs press for a swift reopening.

Mr Johnson is preparing to set out his “road map” for relaxing measures on February 22, with March 8 earmarked for schools to start reopening to all pupils.

He signalled a cautious approach by warning there is an increased chance of new and concerning variants emerging if infections remain high.

“When you have a large level of circulation, when you’ve got a lot of disease, invariably the vulnerable suffer, so that’s why we want to drive it right down, keep it right down,” he said during a visit to Orpington Health and Wellbeing Centre in south-east London.

Ministers have said reopening schools is their first priority, but reports have suggested a staggered approach may be taken, with secondary schools going back a week later than primaries.

“No decisions have been taken on that sort of detail yet, though clearly schools on March 8 has for a long time been a priority of the Government and of families up and down the country,” Mr Johnson told reporters.

He said: “We will do everything we can to make that happen,” but warned that infection rates are still “comparatively high” and Covid-19 patients in the NHS remain higher than the April peak.

“So we’ve got to be very prudent and what we wanted to see is progress that is cautious but irreversible, and I think that’s what the public and people up and down the country will want to see,” Mr Johnson added.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the intention is to “start getting kids back to school from March 8”, but was not ruling out they could be sent back in stages.

If Leeds follows national trajectory, then schools will open first, with the earliest date mooted as March, with non-essential shops, then restaurants and finally pubs by Easter, according to national reports.

Mr Johnson said he would aim to give target dates for restrictions being eased when he sets out his plan next Monday but “we won’t hesitate” to delay plans if infection rates make it necessary.

Professor Stephen Reicher, a scientist advising the Government’s Covid-19 response, warned that giving dates for lifting restrictions could be damaging if they are not met.

The member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) told the PA news agency: “If things don’t happen on that date then people begin to be hopeless and helpless.

“You begin to have a sense of ‘look, there’s nothing we can do’ and that sense of helplessness is very damaging psychologically.

“I think it’s far more constructive to say to people ‘this is what we can do to get infections down’, to give people something active to do.”

Mr Johnson urged people entitled to a jab to accept them after Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested around a third of social care staff have not received a vaccine, despite being one of the prioritised groups.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the Government favours encouraging care home staff to come forward and accept jabs rather than employers making them mandatory, echoing vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi, who said such a move would be “discriminatory”.

Meanwhile, the first international travellers required to isolate for 10 days at Government-designated quarantine hotels arrived at Heathrow Airport on Monday morning.

New rules force UK nationals returning from 33 “red list” countries to quarantine at the sites in an attempt to prevent new strains of the virus entering the country.

The successful rollout of the vaccine programme is leading to increasing pressure from the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) of Conservative MPs to end restrictions quickly.

Over the weekend, more than 60 CRG members signed a letter calling for the Prime Minister to commit to a firm timetable ending with the lifting of all legal controls by the end of April.

But Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast there is “some way to go” before lockdown is eased, stressing that the Government is awaiting key data on how successfully vaccines reduce transmission.

Mr Hancock cited “early evidence” showing vaccines reduce the spread of Covid-19 by about two-thirds, but stressed that ministers want to “see that actually in the data, not just from the trials”, as well as a drop in hospital admissions and deaths from jabs, when considering easing restrictions.