Sheffield health boss joins calls for circuit-breaker

The Government's scientific advisers recommended a ‘mini lockdown’ in England last month amid a rising number of cases, but instead a three-tier system has been put in place.

Northern Ireland has imposed a four-week circuit breaker, while Wales will begin a 17-day "short, sharp" national lockdown from Friday. Similar measures are also in place in Scotland.

Greg Fell said: “I think it would be a wise thing to do. It’s been done at the wrong time and it’s probably not long enough for a fortnight.

"It is what it is, we will achieve the goal stated for it but in effect what it does is kick the can down the road. It doesn’t change any of the fundamentals.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a two to three-week lockdown in England but Mr Fell previously questioned how effective it would be.

He said: “The important thing is that any time that’s bought is used to fix some of the fundamentals like Test and Trace. It’s currently still around 72 per cent [in Sheffield], it’s been pretty static and needs to improve.

“It isn’t terrible, but it could be a lot better.”

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The percentage of people and their contacts successfully traced in Sheffield within 48 hours of a positive test is currently lower than the national average.

Mr Fell also admitted he was not sure what would happen at the end of a circuit-breaker – and remains in the dark about the city’s exit strategy.

He said: “I genuinely don’t know, my sense is that we would go back into Tier 2.

"I don’t know about an exit strategy, it’s one of the questions that the Government needs to clarify, what metrics get used to asses that and what’s the threshold. All the leaders across most of the north will be asking the same questions.”

He added: "The exit strategy gives us hope and gives transparency so we all know when we will be in a position where we will be out of this, so people have got something to aim for.

“No one knows [what it looks like]. The Government may not know that and that’s fine, but let’s be open about that.”