'Impossible' for Wigan to be removed from Greater Manchester-wide coronavirus restrictions, says Andy Burnham

Local MPs have urged the government to reconsider its decision to impose new measures on the borough but the region’s mayor has warned that a spike could happen at any moment.

In the week ending August 1 there were 7.3 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in Wigan, which is marginally higher than the week before but still the lowest in Greater Manchester.

But newly-released data shows that during the height of the pandemic in mid-April, the borough had the highest number of cases in the region with 120 per 100,000 people.

Mr Burnham told a press conference on Wednesday: “This shows you that this can happen at any point, and it would have been much higher if testing had been more advanced.

“The virus is endemic within all boroughs now. Wigan is in close proximity to other boroughs where the number of positive cases is currently high.

“As the virus is bubbling under the surface it doesn’t take much much for that spike to go up again.”

Mr Burnham warned that there was always the risk that Wigan could find itself in a similar situation as Trafford, where cases have risen from 8.8 to 36.2 per 100,000 within two weeks.

In the last week several Covid-19 outbreaks have also been reported in workplaces involving staff living in different parts of Greater Manchester.

“I think it’s impossible to start breaking one borough off and separating boroughs out because Greater Manchester is an interconnected place,” said Mr Burnham.

“We don’t all completely live our lives within one borough.

“If you look at the figures for Trafford that tells you that it is right that we have a situation where all Greater Manchester boroughs work together.

"If we were to start picking up different rules for different boroughs we might further confuse what has been a difficult message.”