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The Health Secretary has said many outbreaks are being dealt with “swiftly and silently”, through small lockdowns and new testing regimes such as portable walk-in centres. Door-to-door testing will increasingly be used to contain localised infections. A farm in Herefordshire has become the first business in the country to go into lockdown.

This happened on Sunday after 73 workers tested positive for COVID-19.

It has now raised concerns about further outbreaks happening as seasonal workers gather for harvest time.

Mr Hancock will this week review the lockdown imposed on Leicester, the first city in Britain to have restrictions reimposed because of a spike in cases there.

The Government has been highly critical of the response of local authorities in the city, and in particular of its Labour mayor Sir Peter Soulsby.

One option has been for the central government to take over the running of the city for a temporary period.

It is believed that Mr Hancock is unlikely to the opt for that, however, is likely to have closer monitoring of the council.

Where the Health Secretary will be assessing their performance and decisions over the next few weeks.

In his article for the Telegraph, Mr Hancock discloses that local interventions are running into triple figures each week, a higher figure than had previously been reported.

These local interventions include the closure of pubs, schools and businesses and increased testing at a local level.

He says that with testing capacity now at more than 300,000 tests per day, the Government will “hunt down the virus” by blitzing any area with a significant outbreak.

He writes: “Each week there are over a hundred local actions taken across the country – some of these will make the news, but many more are swiftly and silently dealt with.”

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“This is thanks in large part to the incredible efforts of local authorities – all of whom have stepped up and published their local outbreak control plans in line with the end of June deadline.”

He says the increased testing capacity, the highest in Europe, means “we can take more targeted local action and less national lockdown, to restore the freedom of the majority while controlling the virus wherever we can find it”.

Boris Johnson, Prime Minister, has recently urged workers to start returning to their offices in order to help restore the economy.

Mr Hancock’s disclosure of the level of local outbreaks comes amid this decision.

The Government appears to be divided between protecting public health and the need to kickstart the economy.

The latter appears to be under pressure from certain backbench Tory MP’s and businesses who are keen not to make any more cuts.

Mr Hancock’s intervention serves as a reminder to his colleagues that the danger of a second wave of the virus remains.

Another 650 cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the UK on Sunday, with 21 more deaths.

In Leicester door-to-door testing is being rolled out in the worst affected areas of the city to test everyone in a given area, whether they have symptoms or not.

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