‘This is not a lockdown’, Andy Burnham says as Greater Manchester residents told to ‘minimise travel’

Mayor says he is behind ‘sensible’ new advice

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has told residents in the city that new Covid guidance issued by the government is "not a lockdown" but that people should be "careful" and aim to minimise travel amid a surge in new infections.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday after ministers announced additional help for Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire to help curb the spread of the Delta variant first identified in India, Labour’s Mr Burnham insisted the plans did not ammount to a “ban” on travel.

"This is guidance, it is advice to the public. It is not a lockdown", Mr Burnham told reporters. "This is not about telling people to cancel their plans, it is about asking them to be careful in setting any new ones, to minimise non-essential travel."

Addressing MPs in the House of Commons earlier Matt Hancock, the health secretary, announced a "strengthened package of support" for the region, which has been hit hard with Covid and harsh lockdown measures.

Mr Hancock, 42, said the military would be drafted in to help the affected areas and extra support made available to public health teams.

New measures will include additional testing as well as supervised in-school testing - an approach the health secretary said had helped to stem the tide of infections in areas such as London and Bolton.

His announcement came as new internal NHS data shared with The Independent revealed the region is seeing a rise in hospital admissions, with 13 new patients with Covid-19 admitted to Manchester hospitals as of 8am on Tuesday.

In advice issued by the Cabinet Office, residents in Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire are being encouraged to minimise travel in and out of the areas where they live and to avoid meeting people indoors.

They are also being advised to get tested twice a week and continue working from home where possible.

Mr Burnham, who had a short stint as health secretary under former prime minister Gordon Brown between 2009 and 2010, said he was on board with the new guidance and thanked Mr Hancock for the "joint approach that has been taken to date".

In October last year, the mayor had a public falling out with the government after it would not meet his financial demands to support the city as it faced tougher lockdown measures than most of the rest of the county.

Mr Burnham gave an impassioned stump speech in Manchester city centre as the news came through that the number he had put forward had been rejected.

He said the decision was a "deliberate act of levelling down" as he took a swipe at prime minister Boris Johnson's "levelling up". Mr Burham won plaudits for the speech was branded "King of the North" by some.

Answering questions about Tuesday's announcement, Mr Burnham, who was in May reelected as Manchester mayor with an increased share of the vote, said it was "very important to keep a sense of proportion" about the advice.

He said it was a "sensible approach given the rise in cases that we've seen", adding "[it's] not just about protecting Greater Manchester, it is of course about protecting the whole country from the wider spread of the Delta variant."

The mayor also said accelerating vaccinations would "allow us to go further and faster in those areas where we need to drive the take-up, where those case rates are highest".

He added that if the government agreed to release vaccine doses to Greater Manchester early, "we are very confident that we will have the tools that we need to turn the rising cases around".