Coronavirus: McDonald's closes Tipton branch after staff test positive

A McDonald's restaurant has temporarily closed after five of its staff tested positive for coronavirus.

Staff at the Great Bridge branch in Tipton, Sandwell, are isolating at home and McDonald's said it will reopen "as soon as we feel we can".

It comes as cases in Sandwell continue to rise, with more than 100 positive tests recorded last week.

The local authority said a local lockdown "would be a possibility... if cases continue to rise".

Sandwell's director of public health Dr Lisa McNally said McDonald's was "working well" with the council and had good infection control measures in place, "so people who have been in for a burger don't need to worry they've been infected by a member of staff".

Sandwell has seen rates of infections rise to 32.4 per 100,000 people in the week up to 26 July, up from 23.2.

The number of new cases has tipped over 100 a week for the first time, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.

Dr McNally said the authority was "doing everything we can to get some control over this surge in cases".

The council has launched its own test and trace service and criticised the national system for not providing enough information. Dr McNally said it was failing to reach four out of 10 cases in the area.

"It's just not working well in areas where there's a lot of diversity," she said.

Launched on Wednesday, the council said it would be providing services in a number of languages to reach the different communities in the area.

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