COVID-19 ‘bubbling up’ in up to 30 areas, the Prime Minister warns

The Prime Minister also said there has been “a massive success now in reducing the numbers of those tragic deaths”

The COVID-19 pandemic is “bubbling up” in up to 30 different areas throughout the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned.

The Prime Minister has said that levels of the coronavirus are “going down” in the city of Leicester, the first city that was subject to a local lockdown in the UK, but the British public will have to be careful of a “really damaging second wave”.

“It’s absolutely vital as a country we continue to keep our focus and our discipline and that we don’t delude ourselves that somehow we’re out of the woods or that this is all over because it isn’t all over,” he warned.

The places in theUnited Kingdom with the highest case rates per 100,000 people, according to the NHS Digital’s latest data, are Blackburn with Darwen (85.3), Leicester (57.7), Oldham (53.1), Bradford (44.9) and Trafford (39.3).

Behind them are Calderdale (32.4), Rochdale (30.9) and Sandwell (27.5) – which has set up its own contact-tracing system in a bid to contain outbreaks and out of frustration with the one run by Whitehall.

This comes after Heathrow Airport is proposing a coronavirus testing plan in a bid to reduce the 14-day quarantines and get people travelling by plane as the travel sector suffers under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking on a visit to North Yorkshire, the Prime Minister said that there has been “a massive success now in reducing the numbers of those tragic deaths”.

Following news that the national coronavirus self-isolation period will be extended from seven to ten days long, Boris Johnson has denied that it would leave the British public confused.

All four of the chief medical officers for the four nations within the UK, had approved the new rule change dues to “strengthened” evidence that there is a “real possibility” anyone with the coronavirus can transmit the virus for longer than had previously been thought.

Those who have come into close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 will be required to remain at home for the same amount of time as before, which is 14 days.

It aligns the UK closer with some other countries’ policies and those of the World Health Organisation, which says people should be in isolation for 10 days and then an additional three once they stop showing symptoms.

Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, has responded to today’s findings.

He said: “The confirmation that England and Scotland recorded the highest levels of excess deaths in Europe is devastating.”

“Every life lost is a tragedy and leaves behind grieving families.”

“This is a stark reminder of the catastrophic failures of the Tory government in Westminster and the SNP government in Edinburgh.”

“Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon must now take responsibility for why we were so badly prepared.”

This comes after the origins of the giant sarsen stones at the Stonehenge site have finally been discovered after a missing piece of the structure was returned to the historical location after 60 years.