GM leaders support phased national release from lockdown

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, has announced that the ten leaders of the city-region’s local authorities are unanimous in supporting a phased national release from lockdown.

Speaking at his weekly press briefing on Wednesday, Andy Burnham said he had been invited to feed opinions into Government reiterating that, in his opinion, the tier system did not work, and that easing of lockdown should go at the pace of the area slowest to recover.

Covid-data across Greater Manchester

Mayor Burnham also commented on current Covid-19 case data in the city-region. Numbers of those infected across Greater Manchester are continuing to decline although numbers are still of concern in Bolton. There is a higher propensity of cases in the 30-44 age range and less among the older age group. Numbers of cases in care homes continues to fall, as the vaccine has now been offered to all residents; Covid-related hospital admissions are also down by 20% week-on-week.

First dose vaccines have been offered to all those known to be in the four highest priority categories where 600,000 vaccines have been administered, an 80% take-up.  Asymptomatic testing is being introduced across the region along with more intense mass testing.

Reports showed that overall businesses across the region are compliant with lockdown restrictions; however, across GMP, absenteeism due to illness or isolation is at 5% but higher in call centres, which may impact the rate at which calls are dealt with.

Andy Burnham, a long-advocate in reducing homelessness, also remarked he is concerned about the impact that the end of the eviction ban could have on the ability to provide a bed for every homeless person in Greater Manchester.

New hope for High Streets

Concluding his press briefing, Mr Burnham said that while it was sad to see more retailers leaving the High Street, he did think that the empty units could be filled with a mix of uses and build on the successes of new models such as Altrincham where the offering is led by leisure and hospitality saying “[Covid-19] is an opportunity to rethink some of the spaces as well as the residential opportunities to help the re-birth of towns and cities”