Anyone live in Leicester? The lockdown there has been extended.

I agree. Let’s see a few raids on such premises. And charge the bosses not the workers.

If it is a garment factory are they manufacturing scrubs or uniforms for NHS..........just a thought?

Crikey growstuff that does make some kind of sense, so I will revise my comment about poverty playing no part here. Those poor workers, (20 - 40 year olds), knowingly taking CV back home to their elders who were no doubt doing the childcare in the multigenerational household.

And having no other choice than to work, because as we know, the government are going to crack down now on benefit claimants. Tory policy yet again driving the growth of the virus. It's like something from a 'How to lead your country into ruin' handbook.

Maybe the government could crack down on the owners of these factories, exploiting immigrants, committing furlough fraud and putting money and profits before the health of their workers and the general community.

I wonder who owns these places?

That’s just not the case Gaga as the government has been paying 80% furlough money all along.Owners of factories are supposed to have put safety measures in place for their workers and if these particular bosses of factories around Leicester haven’t done so, then it’s their fault and they should be named and shamed.

Furlough is 80% of wage, without the expenses linked to work, it’s manageable. The factory I referred to is making fast fashion

Iam64

Furlough is 80% of wage, without the expenses linked to work, it’s manageable. The factory I referred to is making fast fashion

Thank you for info on factory.

Responsible employers have topped up the 80% to 100% of wages (we have)

I don't know whether people have seen this graph but it explains why mayors and other local authority leaders haven't known the true rate of infection in their area.

The Pillar 1 (in blue) numbers are those who have been tested and found positive in hospitals. The Pillar 2 (in red) numbers are those who have been found positive by other providers (Serco, Boots, etc).

The government has only been releasing Pillar 1 data to the public and it's those figures which the official government's tracker uses. They weren't even released to mayors and local authorities.

As you can see, Pillar 2 tests have accounted for most of the people found positive for some weeks.

Despite anecdotal evidence locally that infections were rising, the official data showed that they were going down and local authorities didn't have the data until last Thursday to deal with outbreaks. That's why the mayor of Leicester didn't believe at first that there so many infections. He'd only been given the Pillar 1 data. Andy Burnham is saying the same thing about Manchester.

The fact that Pillar 2 data wasn't being released accounts for the discrepancy between official data and that available on the KCL Covid-19 tracker. The KCL tracker has always shown much higher figures, but the government refused to co-operate. I knew from my own area that something was wrong. I've been keeping on eye on the figures and it was quite obvious that they didn't agree.

I don't understand that growstuff.

I signed up for all the government communication emails and there's always been those figures available - every day.

It's been very useful to get what's actually bring sent out as opposed to the media interpretation which is often very different.

Im just an ordinary person. Surely the Council and the Mayor would have got those emails too.

Illte you were only getting the Pillar 1 data. The Pillar 2 data wasn't being released.

Quite frankly, the data you and millions of others received was worthless.

I'll take another look.

There's a small footnote stating that the data you received was only the Pillar 1 data (ie those tested in hospitals) but it doesn't explain what that means in practice.

The government's data for my area showed for a few days that there no infections, but I knew that was rubbish. The KCL tracker data showed that 1 in 200 people had symptoms and I even knew two people who had tested positive.

I don’t understand the glossing over of Leicester’s Mayor’s behaviour by some posters, whilst the behaviour of Neil Ferguson and Dominic Cummings behaviour was quite rightly slated.

I don't excuse it maddyone but it's a distraction. It's not relevant to the fact that he and other mayors haven't been given the data they needed and had asked for.

The Pillar 1 and Piller 2 graphs are very worrying. How on earth can anyone assess the level of risk in their own area with this type of information available, or indeed not available?

Yes growstuff I agree, we all need the correct information.

No, I still don't get it. Ive looked at yesterday's email and and it quite clearly states number of pillar 2 tests carried out, the numbers of each type and the positive results.

Do you mean the local results weren't available?

I am curious as to why local authorities don't know about the Covid-related deaths in their area.

I thought that each has a registrar for deaths (as well as births and marriages) who record the death and issue the death certificate so if it says "Coronavirus" on the death certificate they will know.

I don't know exactly how this works but maybe they are not allowed to record the causes of death separately and keep that data. Does anyone know how this works?

Ramblingrose Local death registration details are at least two weeks behind the NHS's figures.

However, this isn't about deaths. This is about positive tests and infection rates. In fact, the Leicester death rate and hospital admissions haven't shown a huge jump because most of the people infected (so far) are youngish and have recovered.

The issue was with the private providers of tests. The government (DfE) knew the overall results, but weren't informing the local public health authorities or mayors. Whether that's incompetence or deliberate hiding of facts, I have no idea.

If you look at the photos of the inside of the factories in Leicester that have stayed open pretty much all through lockdown and defied the advice .... and if you read the quotes from the factories' owners that they will continue to do this ...... then it's all fairly clear why Leicester has had this spike in infections.

It's all available online.

Illte

No, I still don't get it. Ive looked at yesterday's email and and it quite clearly states number of pillar 2 tests carried out, the numbers of each type and the positive results.

Do you mean the local results weren't available?

The government was forced to change after last Thursday. Until then the headline figures provided were only the Pillar 1 results and a footnote about Pillar 2 results. In the beginning, most of the positive tests were coming from hospitals, so Pillar 2 wasn't that important, but this has changed over time.

Andy Burnham has been going on about it for ages and so have some other local council leaders, but nobody was responding. Last week, Soulsby's argument was that Leicester's test results weren't that bad, but he was shown the Pillar 2 results and realised what the real situation was.

Sparklefizz

If you look at the photos of the inside of the factories in Leicester that have stayed open pretty much all through lockdown and defied the advice .... and if you read the quotes from the factories' owners that they will continue to do this ...... then it's all fairly clear why Leicester has had this spike in infections.

It's all available online.

Yes, it is. The Leicester local papers were the first to break the stories and it's been picked up by the national media.

The factory owners need to have the book thrown at them (and more). They've endangered the health of their employees, caused a whole city to shut down and (if they've been claiming furlough money) defrauding the taxpayer too.

Ooops! Not DfE ... I meant DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care).