Curfews, travel warnings and no mixing of households – new rules brought in across Preston, South Ribble and neighbouring boroughs amid rising Covid rates

The majority of the City Deal work is to happen in the West of the city — The restrictions come into force across Lancashire on Saturday

New measures are to be introduced in Lancashire as part of a combined effort across the county to help fight Covid-19.

After six weeks of ‘local lockdown’ in Preston, neighbouring boroughs now face tougher restrictions as rules in the city become stricter.

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A spokesperson said: “The measures are designed to protect residents in the county from the spread of Covid-19, especially our more vulnerable residents. They are also aiming to preventing a much tighter lockdown.”

The new measures will affect all of Lancashire, including Blackburn with Darwen, apart from the Blackpool area, and come into effect Tuesday 22 September.

They will:

Prohibit households from mixing in homes and gardens
Limit bars and restaurants to table service only
Prevent leisure and entertainment venues, including restaurants, pubs, and cinemas, opening between 10pm and 5am*

A number of areas of guidance have also been introduced which residents are strongly urged to comply with.

These are:

Only use public transport for essential purposes, such as travelling to school or work
Not to attend amateur and semi-professional sporting events as spectators

Residents are urged to only visit indoor locations such as pubs and restaurants with other members of their household or support bubble.

Lancashire County Council’s Director of Public Health Dr Sakthi Karunanithi: “The past six months have been really tough for everyone and so many people have made personal sacrifices for the good of their loved ones and the communities where they live and work.

“But we have seen really worrying signs of the infection rate increasing in Lancashire. The daily cases have doubled from 75 cases on the 6^th September to 144 on the 14^th. Although still in small numbers, we are also seeing that hospital admissions rise two weeks after the cases increased. If we don’t act now we could be facing another lockdown. The situation really is that stark.

“We are particularly seeing a high rate of positive cases in the 15 to 44 age group, and our concern is that this will spill into the older and vulnerable groups. Please do not mix between households indoors and keep outdoor mixing as low as possible. Use public transport only for essential journeys like school, work and health appointment. Try to stay and shop locally.

“I would also say that we should be setting as good an example as possible for our children to encourage them to also be better at following the guidance now that pupils have returned to school.”

Angie Ridgwell, chair of the Lancashire Resilience Forum, which is leading the response to coronavirus in the county, said: “The rates of the virus across Lancashire continue to increase and for the safety of all our residents we need to take more wide reaching action to get this under control.

“While hospital admissions are low at the moment, they are rising and deaths will follow unless we all step up.

“We know that the virus is spreading in social settings and therefore we need to reduce social mixing.

“We have to do this so our children can go to school which is so important for their future, key workers can go to work and provide vital services and wherever possible we can keep our local businesses up and running.