Councils need detailed data to contain Covid-19. Why have they been sidelined? | Chris Ham and Kate Ardern
The government's preference for centralisation and the private sector has undermined England's response to the pandemic
The easing of the national lockdown has shifted the focus from central government to local authorities. Councils across England have made good progress in developing local outbreak plans and building capacity for contact tracing, working with Public Health England to decide how to manage outbreaks such as the one in Leicester.
But the main challenge facing councils is accessing the data about what is happening in their areas. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, recently expressed his concerns about this, describing the lack of patient-specific data available to councils like local detectives being asked to solve crimes without being given the names of any of the victims or suspects". Burnham asked Matt Hancock to share all the information he has on Covid-19 in Greater Manchester to enable local public health teams to do their job, echoing similar concerns expressed by the mayor of Leicester.
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