New Public Health guidance issued for Oldham as positive test rates increase

We have asked the people of Oldham to stick to the Coronavirus restrictions to help protect themselves, their friends and their families.

To help halt the spread of the virus, save lives, and avoid local lockdown we issued the guidance below for Oldham residents and businesses. This guidance will continue for the next two weeks.

We asked residents to not have social visitors to their home, and to keep two metres apart from friends and family when seeing them outside. People who are “shielding” are asked to continue to take extra care beyond July 31st.

This comes after the number of cases of Coronavirus increased over the last week. Oldham had 119 cases in the seven days to 25 July. By comparison the week ending 17 July had 26 positive cases. 

This means a current rate 50.2 positive tests per 100,000 versus 10.2 per 100,000 the week before. This rate is well above Greater Manchester and national averages.

The restrictions mean that:

• To reduce spread between households, people should not have social visitors in their home, outside of those in support bubbles
• To protect older and vulnerable people, care homes will not relax restrictions on visiting
• Those who are shielding should continue to take extra care 

A significant proportion of recent cases involve multiple individuals testing positive within a household, showing that household spread is an issue – especially in households with large families.

To help avoid a local lockdown please share this message with residents.

To book a Coronavirus test go to https://www.nhs.uk/ask-for-a-coronavirus-test or call NHS 119.