Public Health England’s latest COVID-19 surveillance report, released on Friday, has highlighted eight areas in England as areas of concern.
If the number of coronavirus cases in Swindon, Northampton, Newark and Sherwood, Oadby and Wigston, Sandwell, Wakefield, Bedford and Peterborough is not brought under control they could all face local lockdowns.
The case rate in Swindon has fallen from 46.8 cases per 100,000 people last week to 44.1 cases this week, according to the government watchlist table.
Swindon borough’s director of public health Steve Maddern said efforts to tackle the virus had been ramped up in the past week, with the focus on SN1 and SN2 postcode areas where the majority of new cases have been.
He said: “The government feels assured that at a local level we’re doing everything we could or should be doing to support our population and are giving us a bit of time to just allow those messages to embed in and see what the outcome is in relation to that.
