Birmingham lockdown: separate households banned from mixing after coronavirus spike
11 September 2020, 15:02 | Updated: 11 September 2020, 15:14
Is Birmingham back in lockdown? A new ban on households mixing will be introduced in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull.
Earlier today, it was announced that Birmingham will be introducing a ban on households mixing following a spike of coronavirus cases.
The new measure - which will come into force on Tuesday - will also apply to Sandwell and Solihull, and will affect around 1.5million.
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West Midlands mayor Andy Street said: "The areas will now be escalated to an area of national intervention, with a ban on people socialising with people outside their own household."
There are currently 68 patients with Covid-19 receiving treatment in Birmingham, with seven of them - aged 40-75 - in intensive care.
Birmingham is now third in the national table of infection rates in local areas, behind Bolton and Sunderland.
The latest seven-day infection rate data showed 78.2 cases per 100,000 in the city, which is the highest since the peak in April.
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Dr David Rosser, chief executive at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), has warned that cases will still likely rise in Birmingham over the next week, despite these measures.
Heximap shows Covid-19 on the rise again in England
Speaking to Birmingham Live, he said: "Even if we brought in some sort of social measures today to stop the spread completely we would still expect to see cases double in a week - those people have already got it, they just don't know it yet.
"We have seen hospital admissions double in a week and I expect it to double in the next week again - it's an exponential curve. We are in the foothills of that curve."
Dr Mark Garvey, consultant microbiologist and deputy chief of infection prevention and control for UHB, added: "At our peak we had 708 in-patients at one time, of which about one in six were critically ill. We are seeing the same proportion now."
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