BLACKBURN with Darwen Council has kept its special measures to combat the coronavirus spike in the borough in force after a review yesterday.

But its leader Cllr Mohammed Khan revealed he had asked for a third testing unit and equipment to deliver kits door to door in the worst-affected areas.

He said the council would look again at its current restrictions to combat Covid-19, introduced two weeks ago, later this week.

The special measures - which included limiting the numbers allowed to meet from two different households, the early requirement to wear cloth face coverings in enclosed public spaces and a ban on handshakes and hugs outside the immediate family - were initially introduced for a fortnight.

Last week the government beefed them up by declaring the borough as ‘an area of intervention’ and postponing the nationally scheduled reopening of privately-owned indoor gyms, indoor sporting centres, casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and conference venues.

After yesterday’s formal review, a council spokesman said: “We are not currently planning to announce any reversal of the measures brought in by the council two weeks ago.

“The freezing of further easing measures was introduced in Blackburn with Darwen following extensive discussions with the government last week and we are constantly building on preventative measures and targeted outbreak control measures following daily review of the data.”

Cllr Khan, who last week warned that tighter restriction could last for two more weeks, said he hoped to see a new testing centre added to the existing two in the car parks at Witton Park Academy and the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

He told the Lancashire Telegraph: “The current measures are containing the spike in the virus but are not reducing it enough to lift them. By the end of last week we were conducting 490 tests a day with the positive test rate down to 2.4 per cent.

“We need more testing capacity and we have asked the government for another testing site, possibly in Audley Range or Roe Lee and the capacity to deliver testing kits door to door in the worst affected areas. If we get more testing we will have a better picture and we will review the situation and the special measures again into or three days.

“We could keep them as they are, ease them or if necessary tighten them.”

Blackburn with Darwen Council has also postponed reopening its own leisure centres in its two town centres, stepped up public protection advice and support to small shops across the borough and urged everyone at risk to be tested regardless of symptoms with targeted testing and case finding in areas of higher Covid-19.

The special measures aim to avoid the borough facing a Leicester-style re-imposition of a full coronavirus lockdown despite it leapfrogging the city to have the highest Cobid-19 infection rate in the country earlier this month.