On Friday lunchtime the Mayor of Tower Hamlets tweeted this.
Apparently Tower Hamlets now has one of the highest levels of Covid-19 in London.
So, in addition to current national measures, residents are being asked to avoid visiting other households unless absolutely necessary.
At present this is advice, not an instruction or a legal obligation. It's also unexpected, and unusual.
Every UK local authority with official restrictions on socialising [map] lies north of a line drawn between Bristol and The Wash, every single one. The closest place to the capital with restrictions is Leicester, some 100 miles distant. Even Luton, which was one of the first places to be labelled an area of concern, is still only advising residents to "limit social interactions with other households." Suddenly Tower Hamlets has become (unless you know different) the odd one out in southern England.
It's debatable whether Tower Hamlets has one of the highest levels of Covid-19 in London. In the latest figures, released on Friday, Tower Hamlets had 131 new cases, a rate of 40.3 cases per 100,000 population. Eight other London boroughs had a higher rate, namely Redbridge, Newham, Hounslow, Havering, Barking & Dagenham, Ealing, Hackney and Hillingdon. Redbridge's rate was 62, which is the 64th highest rate in England. Tower Hamlets' 40.3 wouldn't even make England's top 100.
I've also seen 'latest figures' suggesting that Tower Hamlets has the fifth lowest rate in London, and elsewhere figures suggesting it has the fifth highest. Far too many differentways ofmeasuring infection are available. I am perfectly willing to believe that the Mayor knows better than me which numbers to take note of and when to get concerned. But there are no rankings in which Tower Hamlets is so near the top of the list that it should be the sole borough in London to be offering additional advice on social distancing.
Whatever, the advice has been given and we are being asked "to avoid visiting other households unless absolutely necessary". I don't have any other friends in Tower Hamlets to go and visit, so that's easy enough. But the wording of the advice also suggests I shouldn't go round to visit BestMate who lives in Newham, but he can still come round and visit me. Ditto the Mayor's advice seems to suggest I should no longer consider heading up to Norfolk to see my family, but their councils have no qualms about them travelling in the opposite direction.
Also it's not clear what "unless absolutely necessary means". BestMate has my spare front door key, so I'm sure I could go round if I accidentally locked myself out. But for the wider community is babysitting your grandchildren OK, or helping to paint the spare room, or offering to do some gardening? Guidance is all very well, but when its edges are as woolly as this it's all too easy to conclude it doesn't apply to you.
Perhaps more importantly I wonder how many of Tower Hamlets' residents have even noticed. An announcement on Twitter and Facebook couldn't even reach 10% of the borough's population, judging by the number of followers, and if a mass email did go out I never received it. The council's Instagram feed remains silent on the matter. Most hopelessly, if you visit the Tower Hamlets website the Mayor's advice isn't there.
The website's homepage includes all the usual links to council services and a scrolling carousel of featured highlights, but not the Mayor's message. Even if you click through to the dedicated coronavirus information page the most recent update is dated 23rd September. Meanwhile the most recent newsstory, from Friday, is merely about new play equipment in local parks.
The story has been covered by the BBC, the Evening Standard and several nationalnewspapers, because being the first London borough to suggest restrictions brings you to prominence. But that's not going to have made an enormous dent in the local consciousness, especially in such an ethnically diverse borough with a particularly youthful demographic. It is exceptionally difficult for a council to get its message out these days, especially when it's only advice and not advice anybody wants to hear.
I will not be popping round to see you any time soon, probably, sorry. And if this is a foretaste of what's to come eventually across a wider range of London boroughs, perhaps even a legal restriction, best get your social mixing in soon.
