Public Health England has announced that two UK towns are now 'areas of intervention' over coronavirus levels. The announcement came as the health authority declare that cases in Luton, in Bedfordshire, and Blackburn and Darwen, in Lancashire, have increased.
They are now both at the same level as Leicester and the city's neighbouring Oadby and Wigston, which were subject to the UK's first full local lockdown.
In Blackburn with Darwen, the rate has jumped from 48.3 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to July 12 to 79.9 in the seven days to July 19, with 119 new cases recorded.
Luton had not previously been on PHE's watchlist, although officials had noted an increase in COVID-19 cases in the area. However, a government source told the