Boris Johnson has denied there was a "lost week" while coronavirus was spreading in Leicester as the government was accused of being "slow to act" over local spikes in COVID-19 infections.
Leicester has re-entered strict lockdown conditions - as the rest of England prepares to reopen pubs, bars and restaurants this weekend - with the closure of schools and non-essential shops in the Midlands city.
Public Health England figures show there were at least 45 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the week to 21 June in Leicester, with Barnsley, Bradford and Rochdale also among the worst-affected regions.
The data covers all mass COVID-19 testing in England, including those carried out in NHS and Public Health England labs (known as pillar 1), plus all community testing, drive-throughs and tests sent to people's homes (pillar 2).
At Wednesday's session of Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed that local authorities in Leicester only had "half of the data" when monitoring COVID-19 cases.
He claimed that city officials were only given pillar 1 data and not pillar 2, which meant they "thought there were 80 positive tests in the last fortnight when the real figure was 944".
Sir Keir told MPs: "The local authority was only given the real figure last Thursday.
"So there was a lost week whilst the virus was spreading."
He urged the prime minister to give a "cast-iron guarantee... that no other local authority will ever be put in that position again".
After PMQs, Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby posted on Twitter: "We should have had this data right from the start.
"Council's (sic) up and down the land are the ones at the front line, we need to know what is happening in our communities and the government needs to tell us."
In the Commons, Sir Keir asked why the government was "so slow to act" to implement a lockdown in Leicester.
"At the daily press conference on 18 June, the health secretary said 'there's an outbreak of COVID-19 right now in parts of Leicester'," he said.
"Yet it was only on Monday evening this week that the government introduced restrictions.
"That's a delay of 11 days during which the virus was spreading in Leicester."
Mr Johnson replied that the "government first took notice and acted" on the spike in infections in Leicester on 8 June.
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"We sent mobile testing units shortly thereafter," he said, with ministers also engaging "actively" with local officials.
The prime minister also denied local councils had not received full coronavirus data, telling Sir Keir he was "mistaken".
"Both pillar one and pillar two have been shared not just with Leicester but with all authorities across the country," Mr Johnson told MPs.
"We did in Leicester exactly what we did in Kirklees, or in Bradford, or in Weston-super-Mare or other places where very effective whack-a-mole strategies have been put in place.
"For reasons that I think the House will probably understand, there were particular problems in Leicester in implementing the advice and in getting people to understand what was necessary to do.
"But, let's face it, we've had to act, the government has acted.
"He wants to know whether we'll act in future to ensure that we protect the health of the entire country.
"And I can tell him that we will."
However, health minister Nadine Dorries appeared to confirm that Leicester had not received full coronavirus data - including pillar 2 testing - until last Thursday.
She posted on Twitter: "This data was made available to all authorities on the 22nd.
"Most accessed it using an authentication code on the 24th, the rest (Leicester) on the 25th.
"It isn't publicly available yet, but that will hopefully change soon."
Toby Perkins, a Labour shadow minister, claimed Mr Johnson's assertion that getting people in Leicester to "understand" coronavirus advice was "revealing".
He tweeted: "With Dominic Cummings conduct still fresh in the memory, PM suggesting the Leicester second wave is because people didn't understand what to do is revealing."
Asked if Leicestershire Police are considering road blocks to enforce the lockdown, chief constable Simon Cole said: "We're thinking about all of our options but we hope that common sense will prevail.
"Most people have complied here through the previous iterations of the lockdown.
"It's a pretty simple equation really - we live in an area where there's a very, very dangerous disease that makes people really ill, and we currently, sadly, lead the nation in that illness.
"What people are being asked to do is stay at home, what people are being asked to do is only travel if it's absolutely essential."
Professor Nishan Canagarajah, the University of Leicester's vice-chancellor, has urged prospective students not to defer their places following the lockdown in the city.
He said: "I don't think anybody should rush to make a decision.
"I want to reassure students in the community that there is plenty of time to control the virus."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMic2h0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLXBtLXJlamVjdHMtdGhlcmUtd2FzLWEtbG9zdC13ZWVrLXdoaWxlLWNvdmlkLTE5LXNwcmVhZC1pbi1sZWljZXN0ZXItMTIwMTg4MjnSAXdodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9hbXAvY29yb25hdmlydXMtcG0tcmVqZWN0cy10aGVyZS13YXMtYS1sb3N0LXdlZWstd2hpbGUtY292aWQtMTktc3ByZWFkLWluLWxlaWNlc3Rlci0xMjAxODgyOQ?oc=5
2020-07-01 13:19:19Z
CBMic2h0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLXBtLXJlamVjdHMtdGhlcmUtd2FzLWEtbG9zdC13ZWVrLXdoaWxlLWNvdmlkLTE5LXNwcmVhZC1pbi1sZWljZXN0ZXItMTIwMTg4MjnSAXdodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9hbXAvY29yb25hdmlydXMtcG0tcmVqZWN0cy10aGVyZS13YXMtYS1sb3N0LXdlZWstd2hpbGUtY292aWQtMTktc3ByZWFkLWluLWxlaWNlc3Rlci0xMjAxODgyOQ
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