Andrea Fallon: Last News

Don't miss a thing by getting the day's biggest stories sent direct to your inbox

direct to your inboxThe 'mistake' of allowing festive mixing combined with a new coronavirus variant will have tragic consequences, says the director of public health for Rochdale, where cases have doubled since Christmas DayFigures for the week to January 11 show Rochdale's infection rate standing at 410 cases per 100,000 people.

A lack of testing capacity was behind a ‘significant increase’ in coronavirus outbreaks within Rochdale care homes, it has been claimed.Councillor Sara Rowbotham - cabinet member for health during the first seven months of the pandemic - blames a lack of testing availability for care home workers for the rise over recent weeks.However, the government says it ring-fences 120,000 tests every day for the care sector and says 'any suggestion of a lack of available testing for staff is wrong'.The virus had been well contained in the borough’s care settings, with only one significant outbreak over the summer months.But Andrea Fallon, the council’s director of public health, told a Covid-19 engagement board that the picture had recently become

Local leaders are seeking tougher powers to clamp down on businesses that flout Covid rules.Infection rates in Greater Manchester remain stubbornly high, with all ten boroughs currently on ‘red alert’.Bolton has the most cases per 100,000 people in the country while Tameside and Oldham are also among the ten worst hit areas, according to the most recent ‘surveillance report’.Rochdale’s director of public health, Andrea Fallon, has warned it is ‘entirely possible’ there could be a return to the tough restrictions of March and April if things continue to head in the wrong direction.The task of driving down rates has been made still harder by the problems blighting the testing system, making it difficult to keep track of where the virus is and