"Yes it's still safe, and, yes it's still sustainable to keep schools open..." Andy Burnham
Salford has sixty new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the cumulative total to 2,300, up from the previous day's 2,240.
Elsewhere in Greater Manchester, cases in Manchester rose to 5,233 (up from 5,118), followed by Oldham with 3,417 (up from 3,372), Bolton 3,513 (up from 3,383), Rochdale 2,656 (up from 2,608), Wigan 2,639 (up from 2,587), Tameside 2,389 (up from 2,348), Stockport 2,235 (up from 2,210), Trafford 1,906 (up from 1,881) and Bury 1,917 (up from 1,882).
There has been one new virus-related death announced by Salford Royal Hospital.
Meanwhile, following on from Springwood Primary sending pupils home yesterday, River View Primary has closed its Year 4 bubble, telling parents in a letter that children should stay home and self-isolate until 29th September...
"Unfortunately testing capacity nationally means that tests aren't available for a number of days" the letter adds "The school is working closely with Salford's Public Health Team to reduce the risk of infection for your children and our staff..."
Teachers' union, NASUWT, has actually written to Nick Gibb, Minister of State for School Standards, "expressing serious concerns about the failure of the COVID-19 testing system and the impact of this on schools..."
The letter cites Salford City Council as a local authority that "had in place a dedicated testing site for schools' staff and pupils. However, the number of symptomatic pupils and staff has increased to such levels that the testing site has been unable to cope with demand and has stopped taking referrals from schools."
The letter adds that in Bury, which borders Salford, "There are some 600 pupils who are self-isolating and the number is growing..."
None of this was mentioned at yesterday's full meeting of Salford Council when Deputy Mayor, John Merry, refused to reveal in public the true situation in the city's schools (see here).
At yesterday's press conference, in answer to a question whether it is right to keep schools open, Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, played down the school crisis...
"I think it's important not to over react in the situation that we're in, it's been a really difficult week when it comes to testing" he said "...There clearly is a major short term problem in the system...
"It's not the case that there have been no tests this week, there have been tests, probably at reduced capacity but it's also the extra demand that has caused the situation that we're in at the moment" he explained
"Yes it's still safe, and, yes it's still sustainable to keep schools open but if you were to ask me that question next week or the week after with no solution to the testing situation then I may well give you a different answer" he added "But at this point in time it's got to be right to keep schools open...It's one to keep under review.
"It clearly is disrupting the return to schools but nevertheless it was never going to be plain sailing" he said "I think the issue to put to the Prime Minister is that we knew the return of schools would put more pressure on the system and why wasn't more done? ...This is causing real distress for families and also for schools as well. It needs to be fixed, and fixed urgently..."
Earlier in the press conference, Burnham said that while testing wasn't in the control of the Greater Manchester authority, something could be done about contact tracing – and he announced that hundreds of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) staff will be mobilised to support tracing over 3,500 contacts who are not being reached by the national system.
The Greater Manchester Growth Company will also develop a local self-isolation support unit to work with employers to provide support to their employees, following any referral from the local test and trace team.
"We are asking them to give all employees explicit permission and financial support to self-isolate if asked to do so by NHS Test and Trace" Burnham explained, adding that there will be a 'limited budget' to help if employers are going to struggle to find wages to cover people while they are off work.
"Test, Trace and Isolate is not working well enough for Greater Manchester at the moment and we have only a small number of weeks to fix it before we get into the really tough time that lies ahead in the autumn and into the winter; so what we're doing today is stepping forward" he said, offering solutions to the Government, "rather than just asking for things"...
Alongside the new tracing and support system, Deputy Mayor, Beverley Hughes, announced new, more 'rapid' enforcement measures for high risk premises and locations...
"Strong targeted measures rather than blanket restrictions, that's the running theme of the package we have developed" Andy Burnham concluded.
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