Responding to the Health and Social Care Secretary’s statement on
the new three-tier restrictions being introduced for different
areas across England, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local
Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“Councils continue to lead local
communities through this pandemic and will be working hard to
ensure residents and businesses understand and are able to follow
the rules they face.
“The social and economic cost of
restrictions have been significant and it is good that these
restrictions will be regularly reviewed, which we would expect to
involve genuine consultation with local leaders. Councils still
need clarity on how they can move between tier alert levels and
local areas need to be reassured that successful work to tackle
infection rates will result in an easing of restrictions as
quickly as possible.
“Proper plans are also needed for how
government will work with local areas to help scale up successful
local contact tracing efforts with better data sharing to allow
positive tests to be followed up, facilitate targeted testing at
scale and coordinate the roll-out of any COVID-19
vaccine.
“The battle against this virus is far
from over. It is vital that we all follow the new rules we face,
get ourselves tested when needed, self-isolate if positive and
share our contacts on request.”
