Unusually 'high incidence' of virus cases among children in new UK hotspot: Health Secretary

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Tuesday that there is an unusually "high incidence" of coronavirus cases among children in Leicester, a city in England's East Midlands region which will be the first in the UK to be put under a localized lockdown.

Hancock said that this does not mean children are necessarily presenting symptoms or are unwell, reports teh CNN.

"We sent in a lot of extra testing into Leicester over the last 10 days or so and one of the things we've found is that there are under-18s who have tested positive and therefore, because children can transmit the disease even though they are highly unlikely to get ill from the disease, we think that the safest thing to do is to close the schools," Hancock said on BBC Radio 4.

As part of a localized lockdown on the city, non-essential shops will close from Tuesday in Leicester, and schools will close on Thursday. Vulnerable pupils and children of key workers will continue attending class.

Some 3,216 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Leicester since the start of the pandemic, the latest figures obtained by the city council show. Of these, 944 cases were reported in the last two weeks until June 23, according to a council statement.

The government's lockdown decision is "to protect against the transmission in Leicester" where, according to Hancock, "the number of cases is three times higher per head of population than in the rest of the next closest city."

One in 10 of all of positive cases across the whole country in the last week have happened in Leicester, so we really have a specific outbreak and that's why I've taken the action that I have," Hancock added.