The city of Leicester could face a local lockdown due to a rise in coronavirus cases, the UK's Home Secretary Priti Patel said, according to AFP.

“There will be support going into Leicester and in fact the health secretary was in touch with many of us over the weekend explaining some of the measures, the support on testing, resources that will go into the local authority as well,” Patel told the BBC.

Reports in the Sunday Times newspaper said the government was set to reimpose strict lockdown rules on Leicester “within the next few days” after a spike of 658 new cases reported in the two weeks up to June 16.