Blackburn facing 'rising tide' of coronavirus cases

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-53414937

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Blackburn with Darwen is facing a "rising tide" of coronavirus cases centred on terraced houses with high numbers of occupants, the area's public health director has said.

The Lancashire town brought in extra restrictions on Tuesday following a spike in infections.

Prof Dominic Harrison said the majority of new cases were in the south Asian community.

He said a phased lockdown could happen if the rise was not halted by 27 July.

For the next month, people living within the Lancashire authority have been told to observe the new rules in a bid to avoid a Leicester-style local lockdown.

However, Blackburn with Darwen's public health director Prof Harrison said they would "reverse the measures one by one not a full lockdown like Leicester".

"We have we had 114 cases in the last two weeks and 97 are south Asian which is why we want to minimise household contact," he added.

"What we are seeing from looking at the postcode data in the last two weeks is a single house being infected and and the whole household becoming infected creating household clusters in part of the town."

He said it was causing "rising tide events that they are mainly in south Asian areas and areas with a high number of terraced houses and occupied by four or more five people".

The new measures include tighter limits on visitors from another household, and officials have called on people to bump elbows in place of handshakes and hugs.

Residents are being told to wear cloth face coverings in all enclosed public spaces, including workplaces, libraries, museums, health centres and hair and beauty salons.

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