Star date: 9th September 2020

GREATER MANCHESTER MAYOR SAYS 'LOOK AT THE FIGURES AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING...'

At this afternoon's press conference, Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, produced slides showing increasing numbers of COVID-19 hospital admissions in the region, and a slight increase in the percentage of care home residents with the virus.

He added that people in their 20s, 30s and 40s were largely responsible for the spread... "The danger is that...it's starting to go towards the older end of the population" he said, asking people to "think about what you are doing", and adding that "We don't believe restrictions and lockdowns are going to get us through this..."

Full details here...

"We don't believe restrictions and lockdowns are going to get us through this..." Andy Burnham

At this afternoon's weekly press conference, Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, produced statistics showing how weekly COVID-19 admissions to Greater Manchester hospitals have risen from 16 in the week ending 1st September, to 35 in the week ending 8th September.

In the same period, COVID-19 cases in non-ICU (non-intensive care) beds had increased from 66 to 103 (although numbers in ICU beds had decreased from 17 to 14).

The slide also showed a doubling of the percentage of Greater Manchester care home residents either with confirmed COVID-19 or showing symptoms, from 0.3% in the week ending 31st August to 0.6% in the week ending 8th September.

While Andy Burnham emphasised that the care home numbers were very small, he added "The danger is that the age profile is starting to change again and it's going towards the older end of the population...That is where we get into a really, really dangerous position..."

Speaking directly to the Greater Manchester public he added "Please look at those figures, please think about what you're doing, and follow the guidelines, they are there for a very good reason..."

Another slide at the press conference showed the seven day rate of positive tests per 100,000 rising dramatically in all but one borough of Greater Manchester (Trafford), with Salford showing a rise from 38.2 in the week ending 29th August to 63.4 in the week ending 5th September.

The most dramatic rise was in Bolton with a rate of 128.3 (up from 61.9), with the rate in Bury rate more than doubling from 25.7 to 56.5. Over the whole of Greater Manchester the rate rose from 36.4 to 59.1 in a week... "The figures don't yet fully take into account the affect of schools returning so this is a really challenging picture" Burnham explained, adding that he agreed with Public Health England's analysis that the virus had become "endemic in parts of Greater Manchester"...

He explained that more testing for the virus was taking place in Greater Manchester than anywhere else in the country, with an average of 1,541 tests per 100,000 population, whereas the England average is 957...

"We believe we are identifying more positive cases here because of the levels of testing that we are doing" he said, although this seemed to contradict Richard Leese's statement at last week's press conference that more testing didn't mean more cases.*

In response to a Salford Star question about this, Andy Burnham said that "it's the positivity rate that's the issue; what percentage of the tests you are doing are revealing a positive diagnosis...The positivity rate has been increasing and...I think is the key figure that needs to be watched...It's not so much that we identify more cases but we've got more accuracy in our figures."

In answer to a question about whether the restrictions are failing to have an impact, Burnham argued that when they were introduced "we did see a dampening effect on the rate of increase at the time...but what I think we have noticed is their effectiveness has diminished over time the longer that they've been in.

"There has clearly been a concern about the younger age range not necessarily following the restrictions to the letter...it's not just 'young people' which people maybe think of as teenagers, it's people in their 20s, 30s and 40s that we think have been largely responsible for the change in the virus up to this point..."

Looking for solutions, Burnham added that "We don't believe restrictions and lockdowns are going to get us through this, we need a much more intelligent, targeted approach to managing the spread of the virus...a localised high impact approach in communities that has been most successful in driving cases back down, much more so than any form of local restrictions..."

The Greater Manchester Leaders have today written to the Government with proposals for a locally controlled Test, Trace and Isolate system, working face-to-face with people in communities, who should have their wages covered if told to isolate... "We urgently need a solution that's better than the one we've got...the national Test and Trace system is not working for Greater Manchester..."

Burnham also called for the return of daily briefings, not led by politicians but by medical experts... "We have to win back public trust" he said.

The Greater Manchester Mayor concluded that "If we don't observe the rules closely we are going to see the numbers entering hospitals increasing; we run the risk of seeing the number of infected residents in care homes increasing...

"That is what this is about" he said "Think about the lives involved..."

*See previous Salford Star article from last week's press conference – click here