Category Archives: Greater Manchester

Covid: Greater Manchester running out of hospital beds, leak reveals

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NHS document shows no spare beds for patients in Salford, Stockport and Bolton

Greater Manchester is set to run out of beds to treat people left seriously ill by Covid-19, and some of the region’s 12 hospitals are already full, a leaked NHS document has revealed.

It showed that by last Friday the resurgence of the disease had left hospitals in Salford, Stockport and Bolton at maximum capacity, with no spare beds to help with the growing influx. The picture it paints ratchets up the pressure on ministers to reach a deal with local leaders over the region’s planned move to the top level of coronavirus restrictions.

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Michael Gove accuses Andy Burnham of risking lives in Covid lockdown row – video

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The dispute between the UK government and Greater Manchester continued on Sunday after the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, said its mayor, Andy Burnham, was risking lives by opting for 'press conferences and posturing' rather than agreeing to new coronavirus rules. Burnham has accused Boris Johnson of exaggerating the severity of the Covid-19 situation in Greater Manchester 

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Greater Manchester lockdown delay ‘could lead to overwhelmed hospitals’

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Stretford and Urmston MP urges government to strike deal with local leaders over tier 3 financial aid

Downing Street must urgently strike a deal with Greater Manchester leaders to introduce tougher Covid restrictions before hospitals are overwhelmed, the shadow education secretary, Kate Green, has said.

Deputy mayors and other civic leaders in the metropolitan region said in a joint statement on Friday they were “ready to meet at any time” with the prime minister to agree a way forward over the introduction of a tier 3 lockdown. They say the government’s initial proposals did not provide adequate financial support.

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London to face tighter Covid restrictions from Friday night

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No 10 also set to extend tier 3 lockdown measures to Greater Manchester as cases rise

London will be placed in high-risk, tier 2 coronavirus restrictions from Friday night as infection rates in the capital continue to increase, MPs and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, have confirmed.

The decision came as Boris Johnson was expected to sign off on the harshest tier 3 coronavirus measures for millions more people in the north of England later on Thursday, with Downing Street putting last minute pressure on local leaders in Greater Manchester to accept the changes.

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Covid could overwhelm NHS without more curbs, northern leaders told

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Decision expected on whether to extend tier 3 rules to Greater Manchester and Lancashire

Deaths from coronavirus will continue to rise for at least three weeks and the NHS risks being overwhelmed unless the strictest curbs are imposed on another 4 million people, leaders in northern England have been told.

A decision on whether to extend tier 3 restrictions – closing pubs and restaurants and banning household mixing – to Greater Manchester and Lancashire is expected on Thursday.

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Keir Starmer urges PM to impose ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown on England

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Labour leader says Boris Johnson must ‘follow the science’ as Covid death toll rises sharply

Keir Starmer called on the government to “follow the science” and impose a national “circuit breaker” lockdown of at least two weeks as the death toll from Covid-19 soared to a four-month high.

In a significant escalation, the Labour leader said Boris Johnson had “lost control of the virus” and must take urgent action to impose a near-total shutdown across England over October half-term.

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Boris Johnson unveils three-tier Covid restrictions for England

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PM indicates large parts of north could follow Liverpool city region into highest level of restrictions

A swathe of northern England could join the Liverpool city region under the highest level of restrictions, Boris Johnson indicated as he unveiled a new, three-tier Covid rules system for England.

Announcing the much-briefed new approach, which will divide local authorities into “local Covid alert levels”, listed as medium (tier 1), high (tier 2), and very high (tier 3), the prime minister told MPs he wanted to “simplify and standardise” rules while avoiding a new full lockdown.

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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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