The measures being proposed – and what businesses must do

West Midlands leaders and Health Secretary Matt Hancock are discussing the urgent next steps that should take place in response to the rising coronavirus infection rate in Birmingham.

There are currently no plans for a lockdown of any parts of Birmingham, or the city as a whole, and no travel restrictions are being put in place.

However there are four key measures being proposed:
– a halt on any further opening up of new sectors
– restrictions on gatherings of greater than 30 people, with the exception of congregational prayer
– advising that face coverings should be worn in taxis and private hire vehicles for both driver and passengers except where there is a clinical exemption
– preventing gatherings of households limiting that to just two people in any other household at any one time

Birmingham City Council leader Cllr Ian Ward said: “What we need people to recognise is that if we don’t follow the guidance, then we’re likely to have to take more draconian measures, and that is going to impact on people’s livelihoods.”

Clive Wright, Covid-19 regional convenor for the West Midlands, highlighted that it is “our working population” where there are now most postive cases.

One of the areas with outbreaks is workplaces, although the data shows this is across multiple sectors and multiple sizes of businesses, including retail, hospitality and manufacturing. Those outbreaks have so far been small in Birmingham, typically with three of four cases and with no single location being the source of more than six cases.

“I want to be clear that the people of our city should act now,” said Wright.

“We have outbreaks in workplaces and this includes shops, farms, offices and factories.

“The sooner we can identify positive case in any setting, the sooner we can prevent further infection and minimise the impact particularly on businesses, and also the community.

“Businesses fare far better when they act immediately and let PHE [Public Health England] know that they’ve got an infected employee.

“I would ask all employers to work with us at the earliest opportunity if you have employees who have tested positive.”