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Liverpool could be first city to impose two-week 'circuit breaker' lockdown

Shops, restaurants and pubs in Liverpool remain open despite a spike in cases - Oli Scarff /AFP
Shops, restaurants and pubs in Liverpool remain open despite a spike in cases - Oli Scarff /AFP
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter

A two-week "circuit-breaker" lockdown could be imposed locally for the first time as the Government prepares for new restrictions in areas with some of the worst coronavirus rates.

Joe Anderson, the Liverpool Mayor, told The Telegraph it was "only a matter of days" before a circuit-breaker lockdown was introduced in the city because of its rising number of Covid cases.

In the last seven days there have been 1,306 cases in Liverpool, up from 577 in the previous week.

The graphic below shows the UK's coronavirus hotspots:

Coronavirus Local Authority Table
Coronavirus Local Authority Table

The introduction of a "circuit-breaker" could include a complete ban on households mixing at home and the closure of pubs and restaurants for the first time since the UK-wide lockdown was introduced in March.

"For me it is only a matter of time, because the virus isn't able to be controlled in the city with the restrictions we have now," Mr Anderson said. "We need a 'circuit-breaker' or stricter lock down to try stop the virus spreading.

"If we can have the severest measures of lockdown now we may arrest the increase and start to bring it down by the end of October, so that in the lead up to Christmas we can get some normality."

Mr Anderson said he had been in talks with senior figures from central Government and recognised that, while it would be "hard to isolate Liverpool", he could not "see Liverpool not having measures introduced when our infection rates are higher than in the North-East."

One senior Labour MP said Merseyside was "going in the direction of the North-East" and added that an announcement on more stringent measures for the region would be imminent (watch Matt Hancock outline measures for the North-East in the video below).

However Damien Moore, the Tory MP for Southport, said Liverpool is "a huge city which attracts people from all around the region to work there" and queried how a key sector worker from outside the area would continue to get to work if a "circuit-breaker" lockdown were imposed.

"You can't lock down the whole of the region," he added. "I don't know, personally, how you would make it work."

A Government source said: "Discussions are ongoing between central Government and the leadership in the Liverpool area. Obviously the numbers there are concerning, as is the direction of travel.

"We are keeping a very close eye on it, and if there is somewhere that additional measures are brought in it is likely to be in that area."