Thousands call on government to ‘close Blackpool’ as coronavirus cases in the area rise

Thousands of people have signed a petition calling on the government to ‘close Blackpool and protect the locals’. 

The petition comes after a hot weekend, which saw the resort’s beaches and parks packed with families enjoying the sun in one of Britain’s most infectious towns.

The medical director of Victoria Hospital has said the number of coronavirus-related admissions continues to rise at the Blackpool hospital.

The surges in the town follow the lockdown easing measures put in place by the Government, which see groups of six people being allowed to meet outside and go on day trips from today. 

The petition, launched by Brian Pery, has already received 4,773 petitions this morning. It states: “Blackpool has been invaded by people leaving our town filthy, not taking notice of spacing, [and] urinating in the streets.

“It only takes one to pass [the] virus to two more, then it escalates. Please consider, for the sake of our residents and future economy, to stop the so-called responsible people from not sticking to rules and close our town [to] them for at least four weeks to allow [the] virus here to stabilise.

“I ask [the] Government to seriously consider this ASAP.”

Official figures showed last week that Blackpool has one of the highest rates of infection in the country, with 445.8 people out of every 100,000 being diagnosed with the virus.

The national figure stands at 269.6. 

Victoria Hospital has had 185 confirmed and verified COVID-19 related deaths, plus many more at local care homes.  

A medic from the hospital, Dr Radhakrishna Shanbhag, who is also a British Medical Association North West council member, said: “Not only does this mean we’re suffering from a disproportionate amount of serious cases and deaths, but also that, as a consequence, gradual lockdown measures may be affected – prolonging the hurt caused to our local economy.”

Dr Jim Gardner, the hospital’s medical director, has said: “Looking at our numbers, what we are seeing is that, across the whole of the Fylde coast, we have had 1,117 positive diagnoses of COVID. And in our internal data – in our trust data – we are showing now 144 positive COVID patients.

“That is a higher number than last week so this is an important theme for us.”

Visit Blackpool, the tourism team for the town, rebranded as Don’t Visit Blackpool as the lockdown got underway. Due to the lockdown restrictions, it has now changed to ‘Visit Blackpool Safely’.

Many people visited the town over the weekend and left Blackpool beaches covered in litter, in response the tourism board tweeted: “If you plan to venture to the coast or any open spaces today, please don’t leave any litter behind, if a bin is full take your litter home, leave only footprints.”

The UK’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jenny Harries, told people to limit themselves to what is ‘sensible’ rather than what is ‘possible’ now that lockdown restrictions have been eased further.

She said now is a critical time and urged people to not contribute to a resurgence of the virus. 

She said: “I think it’s really important that people just try to use these measures sensibly for their own benefit, but don’t risk transmission to other people.”