Rochdale has become the latest UK town to introduce immediate measures to avoid the reintroduction of lockdown rules.

It follows Blackburn with Darwen and Pendle in urging residents to take extra precautions including wearing face coverings in shops and to limit visitors to homes to just two people.

With infections in the town still running high, Rochdale’s director of public health Andrea Fallon said: ‘The fight against coronavirus is not over.

Although lockdown measures are being relaxed across the country, we can see from our local data that we need to remain vigilant to the threat posed by the disease. We have increased testing and that has shown us that we need to take action and ask everyone to help keep our infection rate down.’

Other precautions advised include wearing face coverings in public as much as possible, keeping two metres apart at all times, avoiding physical contact such as shaking hands or hugging with those outside your household, and to be tested and isolate if told to do so. Measures will be reviewed in two weeks in the Greater Manchester borough, which has a population of more than 220,000 people.

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Rochdale Council leader Allen Brett said: ‘All of us need to do whatever we can to keep the virus under control. Although we are a long way from the Leicester situation, we cannot be complacent and it is vital that everyone does what they can to keep this virus under control.’

The rule on wearing masks in shops from today comes exactly one week before the rest of the country will be required to do so.

From June 29 to July 12 the borough had the fourth highest rate of cases per 100,000 population in England, behind only Leicester, Blackburn and Bradford, said the council.

Figures released yesterday showed the number of new Covid-19 cases in Rochdale for the seven days to July 13 was 30 per 100,000 population – a drop from 35.9 in the seven days to July 6. Leicester continues to have the highest rate at 99.7 new cases per 100,000.

Last week a leaked Government document revealed 20 local authority areas in the UK had been identified as being most at risk of fresh coronavirus outbreaks.

Leicester was deemed to be top of the list and earmarked for ‘intervention’, while areas identified as needing ‘enhanced support’ were Bradford, Sheffield and Kirklees.

At a Downing Street press conference today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared councils would be given more powers to close specific premises and outdoor areas in order to curb the spread of the virus.

He added: ‘I know it will be hard going for people effected by these local measures. It isn’t easy and for some it may seem unjust that people just a short distance away can live their lives closer to normal.

‘But it has to be right that we take local action in response to local outbreaks. There is no point in shutting down a city in one part of the country to contain an outbreak in another part of the country.’

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