Britain locks down city of Leicester after COVID-19 flare-up

Britain will introduce legal changes shortly to enforce a lockdown imposed on the English city of Leicester where there has been a flare-up of the novel coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday. The ancient city of Leicester in central England is the first area of the United Kingdom to face a targetted local coronavirus lockdown after the British government began easing the nationwide lockdown earlier this month.

"We will be bringing forward a legal change very shortly, in the next couple of days, because some of the measures that we've unfortunately had to take in Leicester will require a legal underpinning," Hancock told Sky. Asked if some aspects of the lockdown would be enforced by the police, he said: "Yes, in some cases."

Leicester accounted for 10% of all positive cases in the country in the past week, the government said on Monday. "In the very significant testing that we've brought into Leicester... We have seen a number of positive cases in the under 18s and that's why we took the decision with a heavy heart to close schools in Leicester," Hancock said.

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