Britain is a country assailed by coronavirus, with a town called Bolton where old men have most to fear from their children and grandchildren

A further 2,988 cases of coronavirus were reported in Britain yesterday, indicating the highest number reported on a single day since 22 May and a rise of 1,175 on Saturday. The figures indicate that the largest number of cases were in the 18-49 age group and prompted the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to say that said he was "concerned" about a rise in cases "predominantly among young people". He repeated the Government message : "It's so important that everybody does their bit and follows the social distancing because it doesn't matter how old you are, how affected you might be by this disease, you can pass the disease on to others. So don't pass the disease on to your grandparents if you're a young person, everybody needs to follow the social distancing."

What he should have said when addressing the 18 to 49 year olds was : "Don't pass the disease on to your parents and grandparents", since Britain's post-Second World War baby boomers are now in their 70s, with children in their 40's and grandchildren in their 20s. What Matt Hancock and health officials are worried about is that Britain might follow the same path as France and Spain, where increases in infections amongst younger adults led after a few weeks to higher numbers of admissions to hospitals for older and more vulnerable patients.

The most dangerous place for fathers and grandfathers to live at the moment is Bolton, a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, historically and traditionally a part of the county of Lancashire. More than 90% of cases in the town are people aged between 18 and 49 years-old and Council bosses are urging young people, in particular, to adhere to the new coronavirus rules. All the latest cases are believed to be linked to a holidaymaker who went on a pub crawl instead of going into quarantine when he returned from Spain last month. By 31 August the virus had spread to almost every council ward covering its 285,000 residents. Bolton now has, by far, the highest infection rate in England, at nearly five times the national average. There were 333 new cases recorded in Bolton in the seven days to September 3. This is the equivalent of 115.8 cases per 100,000 people – up sharply from 36.5 in the previous week, the seven days to August 27 and is the highest rate of new cases Bolton has recorded to date.

In response to the upsurge of cases, Bolton residents have been told to avoid mixing with anyone from outside their own household and to use public transport only when necessary. In a joint statement, Council leader David Greenhalgh and Chief Executive Tony Oakham said : "It has been a tough period for individuals, families and businesses but we don't want to throw away all our hard work by allowing the infection rate to rise even higher. Now, more than ever, we need everyone in Bolton to play their part. Nobody wants these restrictions to remain a moment longer than necessary and we believe these new measures will keep everyone safe and help avoid a full lockdown in Bolton."

Dr Helen Lowey, Director of Public Health for Bolton Council, said : "We are carrying out extra testing including giving out home testing kits, and are carrying out extra site visits to support businesses to be Covid secure, and carrying out enforcement where necessary. Evidence from Oldham and Blackburn shows stopping households mixing works."

There is scepticism by some health experts that that this will do any good. A leaked Public Health England Analysis has stated that : coronavirus levels in parts of the North of England found that the national lockdown earlier this year had failed to bring transmission down to near zero, as it had in most of the country. The authors asked : 'If these areas were not able to attain near-zero Covid status during full lockdown, how realistic is it that we can expect current restriction escalations to work?' It states that 'The overall analysis suggests Bolton, Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale never really left the epidemic phase.' In other words, in Bolton, coronavirus has become endemic.

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-09-06/new-restrictions-for-bolton-as-young-people-urged-to-help-reduce-covid-19-spread