Category Archives: Greater Manchester

North of England leaders vow to oppose lockdown without financial support

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Politicians say businesses and residents will need economic lifeline if further restrictions are imposed

Ministers are facing open revolt from leaders in northern England over fresh coronavirus restrictions due to be announced within days, as mayors, MPs, and council leaders, vowed they would fiercely oppose any new measures without substantial financial support.

Pubs, bars, and restaurants across Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and parts of the north-east of England could be forced to close next week in an effort to slow the soaring infection rate.

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Manchester Arena bombing victim not evacuated for over 40 minutes, inquiry told

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John Atkinson arrived at hospital 90 minutes after terror attack and later died of blood loss

A victim of the Manchester Arena attack who had to wait more than 40 minutes after the bombing to be evacuated from the scene told a paramedic: “I’m going to die, aren’t I?”, a public inquiry has heard.

John Atkinson, 28, was not taken from the blast site for 46 minutes, before being carried on a cardboard advertising hoarding to a casualty clearing station.

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Covid scepticism behind high Bolton infection rate, says local MP

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Exclusive: social media hashtag #thinkingforyourself bolsters residents refusing to follow rules

Covid scepticism in Bolton has led to it having the highest infection rate of coronavirus in the country, a local MP has said, as a #thinkingforyourself social media trend gains traction.

With 169 cases for every 100,000 people, the Greater Manchester town has the highest rate in England and has featured among the worst-hit areas in Europe. Health officials said infections had been doubling every four days.

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‘Significant flaws’ by police led to delays in treating Manchester Arena victims

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Inquiry into Ariana Grande concert attack to hear force did not declare major incident for three hours

Experts will tell an inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing that “significant flaws” by police led to a series of devastating delays in tending to victims.

The public inquiry into the terrorist attack was told on Tuesday the force did not declare a major incident until three hours after Salman Abedi’s attack at the Ariana Grande concert that killed 22 people and injured 260.

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Manchester bomber was seen ‘praying’ at venue before attack

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Chairman says he is ‘not looking for scapegoats’ as inquiry hears of possible ‘missed opportunities’

The Manchester Arena bomber was spotted “praying” at the venue 50 minutes before he carried out the attack and asked what he had in his rucksack, the inquiry into the bombing has heard.

It was one of two possible “missed opportunities” to stop Salman Abedi in the hour before the bombing on 22 May 2017, the public inquiry into the attacks heard.

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Outsourcing firms miss 46% of Covid contacts in England’s worst-hit areas

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Serco and Sitel paid £200m to test and trace, but reach just over half of infected people’s contacts in some regions

Outsourcing companies leading the government’s flagship test-and-trace system have failed to reach nearly half of potentially exposed people in areas with the highest Covid infection rates in England, official figures show.

In the country’s 20 worst-hit areas, Serco and Sitel – paid £200m between them – reached only 54% of people who had been in close proximity to an infected person, meaning more than 21,000 exposed people were not contacted.

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Outsourced firms miss 46% of Covid test contacts in England’s worst-hit areas

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Serco and Sitel paid more than £200m to test and trace but reach just over half of infected people’s contacts

Outsourcing companies running the government’s flagship test-and-trace system have failed to reach nearly half of potentially exposed people in areas with the highest Covid infections rates in England, official figures show.

In the country’s 20 worst-hit areas, Serco and Sitel – paid £200m between them – reached only 54% of people who had been in close proximity to an infected person, meaning more than 21,000 exposed people were not contacted.

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Lockdown fears for Birmingham amid sharp rise in UK coronavirus cases

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City sees ‘extremely concerning’ rise to 30 cases per 100,000 as positive tests in Britain hit highest level since mid-June

Police and officials in Birmingham have warned the public to act now to avert a city-wide lockdown as the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England rose 27% in a week, hitting its highest level since mid-June.

The UK’s second city, which has a population of more than 1 million, has seen a rise to 30 cases per 100,000 up from 22.4 the week before and 12 at the start of the month, its director of public health said.

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Manchester Covid outbreak ‘a warning to complacent white middle class’

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Exclusive: health chief says declaration of major incident shows spread not just in BAME groups

The declaration of a major incident in Greater Manchester should jolt a “complacent white middle class” into realising that Covid-19 is not just spreading in ethnic minority households, one of the region’s health chiefs has said.

Eleanor Roaf, the director of public health in Trafford, said 80% of its infections in the last week were in the white community, and she urged the region’s 2.8 million residents to concentrate “much harder on what we can do to stop the wider spread”.

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Expect more lockdowns until low-paid workers are able to isolate without fear of poverty

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Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham warns that dramatically shifting pictures of infection rates will continue to force local lockdowns

Last week we got a taste of things to come. As we head for winter without a Covid-19 vaccine, we will all need to get used to a new routine where, every Thursday, the latest round of local restrictions is announced. Greater Manchester was not the first and we certainly won’t be the last.

When the secretary of state for health called late on Thursday afternoon to inform me of his intentions, I was not surprised.

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What are the new lockdown rules in northern England?

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All you need to know about the updated coronavirus measures affecting more than 4m people

More than 4 million people across swathes of northern England were given less than three hours’ notice on Thursday night that they must endure tighter lockdown restrictions to stem a resurgence of Covid-19 cases.

But what what exactly do the new measures mean for those living in affected areas in the north and elsewhere in England?

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Lockdown tightened in parts of northern England with ban on indoor meetings

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Bar on households meeting inside in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and East Lancashire

Additional lockdown restrictions are to be imposed over large swathes of northern England after a surge of coronavirus cases caused largely by people “not abiding to social distancing”, Matt Hancock has said.

The health secretary announced on Thursday evening that from midnight, people from different households in Greater Manchester, parts of East Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Leicester would not be able to meet each other indoors.

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Test and trace failures risk exponential case growth in England, official warns

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Blackburn with Darwen’s public health director says only half those at risk in north-west being contacted

Failures of the government’s test-and-trace system are risking an exponential growth of coronavirus in hotspots across England, a director of public health has warned.

Dominic Harrison, the director of public health in Blackburn with Darwen, said the national tracing system was only managing to reach half of those who had been in close contact with a coronavirus patient in towns with high infection rates in the north-west.

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Labour abuses happening ‘at scale’ far beyond Leicester, warn rights groups

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Exploitation occurring in UK farming, construction, contract cleaning, fishing, recycling and domestic work, say labour organisations

The labour abuses and sweatshop conditions reported in factories in Leicester are occurring “at scale” across the UK’s garment, manufacturing and farming industries, campaigners warn.

Reports of similar exploitative conditions and labour abuses alleged to be occurring in Leicester have also been linked to garment factories in Birmingham, Manchester and London, among other places.

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Manchester police refer Taser incident of man with child to IOPC

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Video of officers Tasering Desmond Ziggy Mombeyarara was circulated on social media

Greater Manchester police have said they are investigating an incident in which a man was Tasered by officers in front of his young child, after a video circulated on social media.

A video of the incident, which happened at a petrol station in Stretford at approximately 11pm on Wednesday, shows Desmond Ziggy Mombeyarara, 34, being confronted by two GMP officers while carrying the boy.

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North-west overtakes London for number of Covid-19 hospital cases

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Latest figures reveal English regional differences in spread and peak of coronavirus

More people are in hospital with coronavirus in the north-west of England than in London, as regional differences in the spread and peak of the pandemic become increasingly apparent.

Latest figures show 2,033 people in London hospitals compared to 2,191 in the north-west, where the peak for hospitalisation appears to have been on 13 April, compared to 8 April in the capital.

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Coronavirus crisis leads to steep drop in recorded crime

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Offences including burglary and violence fall by as much as 20% in some areas

The coronavirus crisis has led to a drop in recorded crime, by as much as 20% in some areas.

Offences such as burglary and violence were down last week compared with the previous seven days, after Boris Johnson made his first request for people to stay home on the Monday.

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UK police chiefs: coronavirus could bring out worst in humanity

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Warning after crimes including theft of oxygen canisters and puncturing of ambulance tyres

Police chiefs have warned the coronavirus pandemic could “bring out the worst in humanity” after a spate of opportunistic crimes hindered efforts to control the crisis.

The theft of oxygen canisters from a hospital, the puncturing of ambulance tyres and the raiding of food banks by thieves were among the “worrying isolated incidents” in recent days raised by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

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Rochdale child sex offender who fled to Pakistan during trial extradited

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Choudhry Ikhalaq Hussain has been returned to UK to serve 19-year jail term

A child sex offender who sexually exploited an underage girl in Rochdale has been returned to the UK to serve a 19-year jail sentence after fleeing to Pakistan halfway through his trial.

Choudhry Ikhalaq Hussain, 42, was extradited on Tuesday after being arrested in January last year in the province of Punjab, Greater Manchester police (GMP) said.

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Manchester cycle network plan could be national blueprint, says Burnham

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Mayor urges backing as report sets out predicted gains from walking and cycling scheme

A joined-up cycling and walking network in Greater Manchester could provide a national blueprint for reducing congestion and air pollution and improving health, a report says.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, and Chris Boardman, the region’s cycling and walking commissioner, are calling on the government to back plans for an 1,800-mile network of protected routes for pedestrians and cyclists.

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