Coronavirus: Peterborough bids to prevent a local lockdown

Peterborough has one of England's highest coronavirus infection rates, prompting officials to "ramp up" action to tackle the spread of the disease and prevent a Leicester-style local lockdown. But how do people in the city feel, and what would they like to happen?

In the cathedral city of Peterborough, a battle is being fought.

It is pitching the council and health officials against Covid-19 in a bid to prevent any further outbreaks that could lead to a local lockdown, as seen in Leicester, just an hour's drive away.

Peterborough's infection rate had been declining steadily since May, but new cases of coronavirus started to increase in early July. Last Friday, Public Health England declared it an area of concern.

Although the figures fluctuate - and Peterborough is a long way behind Leicester - the city council has deployed a "rapid response team", including council officers, police, health workers and volunteers, to go door-to-door, leafleting and talking to people to ensure they understand the social distancing measures.

It is using social media to get the message across, and has two additional testing stations.

To deputy council leader Wayne Fitzgerald, Peterborough is "a welcoming city with a diverse range of cultures and people living here from all over the world".

But Mr Fitzgerald, the Conservative-run authority's cabinet member for public health, said that presented its own challenges when fighting a global pandemic.

With "so many different languages" spoken in the city, he said vital heath information had been translated to ensure it reached everyone.

According to Dr Liz Robin, director of Public Health for Peterborough and Cambridgeshire, analysis of postcode and ethnicity data for recent Covid-19 cases reflected the "wide diversity of Peterborough residents".

But she added: "However, we are seeing more cases in the more deprived areas in the centre and north of the city, and so we are increasing and focussing our preventive efforts on the most at-risk communities and areas in Peterborough."

Those include the PE1 postcode district, particularly the densely populated Millfield neighbourhood.

"Millfield is celebrated as multicultural: it's got lots of cafes, restaurant," said Mr Fitzgerald.

"It's a bustling, thriving, busy place in normal times and has everything you want from different parts of the world, which is great - but not when you're trying to stop the spread of a virus.

"It's not one particular community, it's spread over a number of communities. You've got people who are Eastern European, white British, Asian, Indian, and it's concentrated where there's this large multicultural society that's used to dropping in on other people's houses and have got large families.

"It's not about ethnicity, it's about their culture. And it's not to say people in other parts of the city don't have it; it's not exclusively that."

On Cromwell Road, Roger Kaye, 73, said the council was doing the right thing.

"They need to warn people who they think are at risk and give them some statistics and be very honest with them and say even though the rest of the country may be out of lockdown, some of the measures may be considered again," he said.

"If they have to be done, as they have done in Leicester, they need to do it."

Public Health England declared Peterborough as one of its areas of concern last Friday, based on its rate of new infections in the week up to 12 July.

At that point, the data showed there had been 55 cases recorded in a week, equivalent to just over 27 for every 100,000 residents.

While this was a long way behind Leicester, which is subject to a localised lockdown and where at the time of the PHE analysis there were still over 100 cases per 100,000 people recorded in a week, it was still one of the highest rates in England.

Tuesday's update for the week up to 17 July has Peterborough currently 14th out of more than 300 English local authority districts for its rate of new infections.

Peterborough has seen a reduction in new cases to last Friday compared with the week before, down from 66 to 47.

The data is revised every day with new cases being added to previous days' figures.

But whether people are listening to the advice being handed out remains a concern.

Nazia Ali, 39, who works for the NHS, said: "I think the awareness is there but I think people are not listening. It's [gone on for] very long now and they don't care about it."

Rashid Mahmood, 35, assistant manager at A2B Taxis on Westgate, said he had a couple of friends who had Covid-19 and they "thought they were going to die".

He said that scared him.

"People haven't taken this seriously. Even through the lockdown people have been out and about doing their own thing," he said.

"I know people who were playing football in the playground, especially down Lincoln Road. It was like a normal day there."

Stricter rules were needed, he said.

"People need to be told 'this is serious, you have got to go home'. That's why Peterborough has a higher rate at the moment.

"We need to stick together and we need to follow the rules."

In the city centre, printer Paul Garwood, 44, who has lived in Peterborough for 18 years, said the "information was there" if people wanted to listen to it.

He said he would support any local lockdown measures if they were put in place.

Nearby, Anargul Najibullah said some people in the city lacked knowledge about the virus and that the language barrier was "100% an issue".

He said: "There are a lot of people with different backgrounds, cultures, religions. Yes, it might be stopping people from knowing about such things."

On the prospect of a future local lockdown, he said: "I don't think, personally, I'm ready for such a thing. Realistically, deep down, mentally, physically, my body is not made for a lockdown.

"As far as other people are concerned, same thing. It's the right thing to do, but it will be hard."

Mr Fitzgerald and the council were keen it does not come to that, though.

He said while it was a "constant mission" to reinforce the social distancing message, he was "confident" Peterborough would be able avoid that outcome.

"No-one wants to see the lockdown that we have seen in Leicester. We are doing a good job, we have troops on the ground where outbreaks have been identified across the whole demographic," he said.

In terms of addressing the situation, he said the council had to be "concerned but not alarmist".

He said the unitary authority was "managing the situation" and with the government giving councils in England powers to close shops, cancel events and shut outdoor public events, it means they can assess the situation at a "very granular level".

Numbers were being managed by using the track-and-trace data available, he said, and work was continuing to review the trends.

"We are positive, we are doing a good job and it's going down again."

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