A local lockdown in Sheffield is ‘inevitable’ warns health boss, as cases at uni rise

We would join Newcastle, Birmingham and others


Sheffield health boss, Greg Fell, issued a stark warning yesterday that a local lockdown in the city is “inevitable”.

Speaking to BBC Radio, he said: “My sense is it’s a matter of time and it’s a matter of when, not if. I couldn’t judge when but I sense we’ll be in the space that other councils have had an imposed lockdown over the next month.”

If the local lockdown introduced is similar to those already in place elsewhere, households will be banned from mixing but pubs and venues will stay open.

The warning comes amid a huge increase in cases amongst Sheffield students, after nearly 370 tested positive at Hallam and 474 tested positive at the University of Sheffield.

Mr Fell continued: “What we need is permanent shift in behaviour in terms of living in an adapted way, maybe while we wait for a vaccine. Who knows when that will arrive but certainly I think we’re going to have to learn to live in an adapted way.

“When, and as we are seeing, the virus starts to get into the older cohort, that’s when we’ll start to see hospitals filling up again, as is happening in other parts of the country but not yet here.”

Both Sheffield universities have put in place plans to support self-isolating students. If you go to the University of Sheffield, you should visit here, and if you go to Hallam then you should visit here.

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