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Appearing on ITV Good Morning Britain (GMB), the radio host predicted areas in the south-west and the south-east of England will be next to see lockdown restrictions imposed on them as the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise again. Defending the Government’s decision to introduce lockdown restrictions in some parts of the north of the country, Mr Dale said: “With Eid beginning tomorrow it was a sensible thing to do and I’m afraid that we are now in for quite a few months of this happening.
“If you look at the R rate, the R rate in the south-west and the south-east of England now are over one.
“So I suspect there will be areas in the south-west and south-east that will have this imposed on them as well over the next week or two.
“So yes, it is disappointing by it’s understandable.”
People from different households in Greater Manchester, parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire have been banned from meeting each other inside their homes or in gardens following a spike in virus cases.
The new rules also ban members of two different households from mixing in pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues, but these businesses will remain open for those visiting individually or from the same household.
The Government said it will give police forces and councils powers to enforce the new rules – adding that some exemptions will be put in place, including for the vulnerable.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “households gathering and not abiding by the social-distancing rules” was a reason for the stricter rules, announced late on Thursday evening, and that the move was in order to “keep the country safe”.
He said: “We take this action with a heavy heart but unfortunately it’s necessary because we’ve seen that households meeting up and a lack of social distancing is one of the causes of this rising rate of coronavirus and we’ll do whatever is necessary to keep the country safe.”
Mr Hancock said the Government had to apply measures across all 10 Greater Manchester boroughs as the virus was spreading more widely than in the local areas where specific action had already been taken.
He told Sky News: “We absolutely looked at what was the right geography for this decision.
“Unfortunately we have seen an increase in the number of cases in Trafford and we also work with the local authority, and local authorities within Greater Manchester including the mayor, and took the decision to apply this across the whole of Greater Manchester.
“The reason for that is we’ve seen these increases across the board in Greater Manchester as well as the other areas that are affected.
“And also the problem was that we had taken more targeted, more specific local action, for instance in Oldham and Blackburn.
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“But we could see that it was spreading more widely than that so we had to take the action that we did.”
Mr Hancock said the Government is prepared to take action across other parts of England if necessary.
He said: “We’ve demonstrated that we’re prepared to take the action that’s necessary to keep people safe.
“That was true in Leicester when we took action there and we’re taking much more localised action in hundreds of different locations right across the country.
“And we are seeing in some parts of the country that increase in the number of cases and we take action where we need to.
“Now, in the south-west and the south-east of England, thankfully, the number of cases is much, much lower so we haven’t had to take this sort of action.
“But we don’t shy away from taking it wherever it’s necessary. Of course we’d rather not because of the impact it has on people’s lives, but we’re prepared to if that’s needed.”
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