Leeds health chief warns social distancing should continue as lockdown restrictions are eased

It follows an announcement today from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who revealed plans to reopen pubs, hairdressers, hotels and campsites in early July, while also reducing the social distancing rules from two metres to ‘one metre plus’.

During a discussion by Leeds City Council’s adults and health scrutiny board, Coun Paul Truswell (Lab) asked the council’s director of public health Victoria Eaton whether she felt such a relaxation in rules around the lockdown were appropriate at this time.

She said: “I think (the relaxation of restrictions) feels reasonable nationally, with the five tests around whether infections are falling. We have met the three-week test around daily falls in infections.

“From the national point of view, there is general agreement that we are at alert level three and it can trigger more relaxed measures.

“The caution around that is having several measures released at once, because we expect there will be further localised cases when society starts to operate again.”

“The test is whether we have the systems in place to contain localised cases and outbreaks. The test and trace system nationally is operational but not at full speed yet.

“We do feel confident that we have got capacity to do preventative work as well as responsive work.”

She added that there was a high chance of an increase in the numbers of cases as the lockdown restrictions are gradually eased over the coming weeks.

“It’s fair to say that the national conversation is working on the assumption that there will be an increase in coronavirus cases as we head into the autumn and winter,” she added. “There is planning in place to expect that increase, although clearly we hope it doesn’t happen.

“The likelihood depends how much we engage people across the city in doing the right thing in continuing social distancing and preventing the spread of infection. The challenge is to maintain the things we know work, to keep the infection low.

“We are ready if there is an increase in cases, but we need to work to make sure that is not the case.”

Coun Truswell responded: “Social distancing is likely to be reduced and people will be coming into closer proximity. We can’t maintain those measures that have got us to where we are at the moment.”

Coun Graham Latty (Con) asked what the potential for a heatwave over the coming days could mean for the virus.

Victoria Eaton responded: “There is a lot of interest in understanding how the virus responds to heat. My understanding is we are not yet clear of the effects of warm weather of the virus.

“There is no evidence I’m aware of that it makes the virus less potent itself.”

The meeting was also asked whether care homes in the city had enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to be able to cope with any potential future spikes in the virus.

A council officer responded: “At the beginning of the outbreak, it felt very hand-to-mouth. We received stock from a central government pathway that got distributed – that was the emergency backup stock.

“Over the last few months we have seen PPE is much more available. It is, to a degree, still rationed and it is still very expensive, but we are starting to see costs drop now.

“We have had mutual aid arrangements between NHS and ourselves – we have had some sticky moments, but we have never entirely run out.”