OLDHAM could be hours away from a Leicester-style local lockdown after becoming the worst town in the country for coronavirus positivity rate.

Town hall and health chiefs staged an emergency media briefing late this afternoon (Tuesday, August 11) to make last-ditch appeal to the residents to heed warnings and adhere to guidelines aimed at combating Covid-19.

Oldham director of public health Katrina Stephens said that the town's virus posivity rate had soared to 5 per cent - the worst in the UK.

In the week to August 8, there were 255 new cases in Oldham - a rate of 107.5 per 100,000 of population, up from 107 and a rate per 100,000 of 57.8 the previous week.

When Leicester was locked down by the government the rate there was 135 per 100,000.

Ms Stephens said: "We now have data on the total number of tests and more detail on who is testing negative as well as positive, which helps us better understand positivity rates.

"One of things that’s concerning in the picture we see at the moment is we are doing a lot more testing, and, perhaps not surprisingly when we are doing more testing, we are finding a lot more cases.

"However, our positivity rate seems to be staying fairly static. Our positivity rate is at 5 per cent which as I understand it from the latest data, puts us at the highest positivity rate in the country.

"That, combined with the infection rate, is absolutely something we are concerned about and why we are asking people to take this action.

"A couple of weeks ago, we were seeing mainly household transmissions. And that is absolutely still the case. We have seen some small localised outbreaks in work places, but predominantly it’s within and between households that transmission is occurring."

Resident are being urged to limit the number of people they are in contact with outside their household and to work from home if they possibly can.

People are being asked not to have visitors to their houses and gardens and anyone meeting people who aren’t part of their household they should do so outside and, importantly, when they are meeting they continue to maintain social distancing and don’t have physical contact.

If people are visiting shops or on public transport or are in other places indoors in public spaces, they are being asked to wear a face covering and also we want people to continue to remember those important infection control messages, like making sure hands are washed regularly and thoroughly.

Deputy council leader and cabinet member for Covid recovery Arooj Shah said: "We are really concerned about the impact this could have socially, but more importantly economically if people don’t adhere to the guidelines.

"People are really fatigued with it. I’m fatigued with it. People are fed up, they’re scared, they’re even angry. They’re also confused.

"It’s been a massive ask of our resident for the last four months and people have complied significantly and I think that’s really important to recognise.

"But at the same time, we don’t want to be in a position where we could be looking at a second lockdown.

"This is why we have to do what we have to do to stamp out the transmission of this virus.

"But I do genuinely believe that it is a big ask for people. We are asking people to really come together and help us stamp out this virus in that normal Oldham spirit that we’ve seen for months now.

"I do feel that people are getting a bit relaxed and because they’re fed up, frustrated too, we have to do the right thing to prevent us from being in that lockdown because one of my biggest concerns, apart from saving lives, is the issue with the local economy which is really serious."

Cllr Shah added that if a local lockdown is imposed it will be by central government. Oldham Council does not have the power to impose it unilaterally.