Ministers and local leaders have “clashed” over the threat of further restrictions, according to the Guardian. It says leaders in the north of England have been warned deaths will continue to rise for at least three weeks and the NHS risks being overwhelmed unless the strictest curbs are imposed on more areas. But Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, has accused ministers of putting pressure on northern regions to accept a “morally wrong” and “fundamentally flawed” system without sufficient financial support, the paper reports.