According to Oxford council leaders, plans to place Oxfordshire under Tier 2 COVID-19 restrictions have been “blocked by the government.” This comes after Ansaf Azhar, Director of Public Health of Oxford City Council, applied to the government for higher alert status. The additional COVID restrictions would prohibit people from socialising with anyone outside their household or support bubble in any indoor setting.
Both city and county officials have been pushing for Oxford to be put under “high risk” status, but no decisive action has been taken by the government. While the Department of Health and Social Care reported to be in “close consultation” with local health experts, Director Azhar continues to warn that, based on its current trajectory in Oxford, the virus could take hold of huge swathes of the community, impacting those who are vulnerable and overtaxing health care systems.
When council leaders advised the government, the most recent data from the Oxford University Early Alert Service reported there had been 288 positive tests since August 20, 2020 with a tripling of cases in Freshers Week. Since the week of 17th – 23rd of October, the number of new cases has escalated to 208 positive tests, for a total of 496 positive tests since the August start date.
Susan Brown, Labour leader of Oxford City Council, said she supports Director Azhar’s recommendation to move Oxfordshire to Tier 2 and was “disappointed that a decision has been made in London” to ignore his considered view as well as the position of the county’s six councils.
Oxford County’s four Conservative MPs, Robert Courts, John Howell, David Johnston and Victoria Prentis, said in a joint statement that there was insufficient evidence to make the case for the whole county to be put under Tier 2 restrictions, though they could see a case for potentially putting Oxford City under higher alert.Green Party town councilors of West Oxfordshire, Andrew Prosser and Liz Reason, reinforced the views of council leaders in their recent statement “the longer this Government sets itself against local government leaders,” the more citizens and businesses will suffer. To date, there has been no further response from the government to local leaders’ concerns.
