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Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, said “some if not all” of the region of 2.8 million people would need to enter further restrictions imminently but that nothing had yet been confirmed.
He said he was not explicitly calling for a national lockdown but that “all areas of the country are now moving fast” with rising infection rates “so we have to think about the policy response to that”.
He added: “That is evidence that delay in the best areas is actually counter-productive.
“So whether it be a national four-week lockdown, I do not know. What I do know is that the message is very clear: we have to take further action to turn this tide sooner rather than later”.
“The numbers are not going in the right direction. In terms of having an intervention that is effective, it does need to be something that everybody across the population is doing
“National colleagues and local colleagues will have to come to a view but it may well be that we will be back in a situation where more restrictive measures need to be taken.”
Concerning picture in South Yorkshire where double the number of people have been infected by Covid now than in the first peak.
A statement released by Mayor Dan Jarvis, stated that over recent weeks there has been a steady rise in the number of patients admitted to hospitals across the area who have tested positive for the disease.
Jarvis said: “This, combined with the significant numbers of staff who are isolating or unwell, mean the pressure on our NHS is steadily growing.
“NHS staff are working incredibly hard and making great sacrifices to keep us safe, as they have been for eight long months. There has been a lot of planning for a second wave, our hospitals are currently coping, and it’s hoped that the experience gained since March will help keep the death rate lower.
