Local leaders react as England placed into seven-week lockdown

Boris Johnson

Local business leaders have been reacting to the news that England has been placed under a seven-week lockdown.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night (January 4) announced that the lockdown would come into effect immediately because of soaring positive test results for coronavirus.

Under the new restrictions, all schools will be closed as well as non-essential retailers.

Any relaxation of the rules will not come into effect before 22 February.

Meanwhile, the UK has been placed under Level 5 alert by the Joint Biosecurity Centre, which means that there is a “material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed”.

Nottingham City Council leader councillor David Mellen said: “It’s been clear for some time that, while Nottingham’s infections rates are now well below the national average, across the country the numbers have been increasing at a worrying rate and putting huge pressure on NHS services elsewhere.

“It’s high time the Government took the decisive action that’s required to control the virus – if it had done so earlier in the pandemic, we could have been in a much better position coming into 2021.”

Leader of Derby City Council, councillor Chris Poulter, said: “While none of us would wish for further restrictions, these latest measures are unfortunately necessary for us to regain control over the virus. We should all work our hardest to do the right thing for Derby and stay home except for essential reasons.

“We hope our unfolding nationwide vaccination programme, as well as the imminent roll-out of community testing, will help Derby to reduce transmission and move away from severe restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so.”

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