as welt _ by lancashire county council as welt so — by lancashire county council as well.ise — well. so residents will be asked to minimise travel in and out of those affected _ minimise travel in and out of those affected areas and they will also be asked _ affected areas and they will also be asked to _ affected areas and they will also be asked to meet indoors... sorry, to meet _ asked to meet indoors... sorry, to meet outdoors, rather than indoors wherever— meet outdoors, rather than indoors wherever possible. the health secretary matt hancock described this as _ secretary matt hancock described this as a — secretary matt hancock described this as a strengthened package of stmport — this includes rapid response teams, putting in extra testing, military support, and supervised in—school testing. i want to encourage everyone in manchester and lancashire to get the tests on offer. people here in manchester, in greater— people here in manchester, in greater manchester, and in lancashire, will greet this i think with a _ lancashire, will greet this i think with a weary sigh

that basically means that the whole of greater manchester and all of the areas covered by lancashire county councilthis means for people in these areas is they've been asked to minimise travel in and out of affected areas. they've been asked to meet outside whenever possible rather than inside, and everyone is being urged to get a covid—19 test. i think people in the north—west will greet these measures with a weary sigh of resignation, but also of recognition because some of these areas haven't been out of some kind of restrictive measures for weeks and weeks, almost since the pandemic began. just a few weeks last summer, areas were free of restrictions. but the government will point to what has happened in bolton where surge testing and a real push on vaccinations does seem to have brought infections down, and their argument is if it can happen in bolton, it can happen in these areas too. a health correspondent, dominic years. —— our health correspondent dominic hughes. our health editor hugh pym explained what this means for the lifting of restrictions later this month. another issue for ministe