Today’s UK Covid news: government to change guidance ‘to make it clearer we are not imposing local restrictions’

Lucy Campbell (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

from on 2021-05-25 18:45 (#5J7RV)

As it happened: Directors of public health in eight areas in England have pushed back against government's guidance for Covid hotspots

7.45pm BST

Ministers were forced to climbdown on travel restrictions to English Covid hotspots after a day of mounting confusion and anger left millions of people wondering if they needed to cancel bank holiday plans.

Contentious advice will be removed from the government website, a spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday evening. It had advised against all but essential travel to and from eight areas of England where the Covid variant identified in India has been spreading. Instead, people will be advised to minimise travel".

7.40pm BST

The government's shambolic presentation of new guidelines for Covid hotspots undermines the fight to control the B.1.617.2 variant, according to this Guardian editorial.

During the first phase of the Covid pandemic, councils were driven to despair by the government's failure to consult with them adequately or utilise local public health expertise. Last May, for example, as infection rates spiralled in the north-east, numerous northern councils defied Whitehall's decree that all primary school reception classes should reopen. A dysfunctional relationship between Whitehall and local government undermined the national response to the crisis.

One year on, as concerns continue to grow over the B.1.617.2 variant of the virus, first detected in India, it is astonishing to see the same mistake being made all over again. On Monday night it emerged that new government guidance was issued last week for eight areas affected by the new variant, where surge testing and vaccinations have been taking place. The fresh advice, which would have major implications for millions of people, recommended that all non-essential travel in and out of the places concerned should be avoided, and people should meet outside rather than inside. But this major policy shift, which appeared to amount to a form of light local lockdown, was not communicated to local public health directors, council leaders or businesses. It simply appeared, unannounced, on the government's Covid guidance website. The public health director of North Tyneside had spent the early part of this week reassuring regional media that it was certainly OK" to visit the area. In Leicester, also on the list, 8,000 people attended a Premier League football match on Saturday. Yasmin Qureshi, the MP for Bolton South East, found out about the guidance from a local journalist.

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