A major incident has been declared in the Manchester area of England, allowing the creation of a "central command structure" to help tackle the rising number of coronavirus cases, a local official has confirmed.
British Health minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday that the Covid-19 lockdown in parts of northern England - including Greater Manchester, parts of West Yorkshire and East Lancashire - would be tightened because of an increasing rate of transmission.
"Although the council and partner organisations have been working closely to tackle the impacts of the pandemic since early this year, declaring a major incident means we can ramp this up further," the leader of Manchester City Council Richard Leese said in the Manchester Evening News.
"It allows the establishment of a central command structure to oversee the response and enables agencies involved to draw on extra resources."
Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey said: "Recognising that there are multiple localities across Greater Manchester seeing rises in infection rates [we] have taken the decision to declare this a major incident in order to respond as effectively as possible."
He said this would help protect the population by aiming to "reduce infection rates and eventually allow the region to return "to as near a state of normality as current times allow".
According to a rolling seven-day rate of new cases of Covid-19 compiled by the PA news agency, Oldham in Greater Manchester has the second highest rate of new cases per 100,000 people out of all local authorities in England, jumping from 41.6 to 62.8, with 148 new cases.
The pandemic has killed more than 46,000 people in Britain, the fourth highest toll in the world, according to the latest Reuters tally.
Meanwhile 19 people have tested positive for Covid-19 after an outbreak linked to a pub in Staffordshire, England.
Around 1,000 people came forward to be tested after health chiefs urged anyone who had been working or drinking at the Crown & Anchor in Stone on July 16-18 to get checked, following an outbreak linked to the premises.
A mobile testing unit spent today in the town and the final test results are expected early next week, Staffordshire County Council said.
The council said 19 people had tested positive who had visited the pub themselves or met others who had.
One individual who tested positive from the pub then attended a private social gathering, further spreading the virus, the council previously said.
It comes as a cluster of 13 cases linked to a pub in Aberdeen, Scotland is investigated by public health officials.
