A NATIONAL newspaper has claimed Barrow could become a 'pariah town' due to the coronavirus.

An article published by the Daily Mail has suggesting that Barrow may have to be 'sealed off from the outside world this week'.

The article states: "As the rest of Britain slowly emerges from the constraints of lockdown, families in the small coastal town lying beyond this security cordon are forced to comply with a raft of stringent new rules restricting their movement."

Published last night on May 15, the article compared the streets of Barrow to that of a dystopian science fiction and described the infection rate as 'shocking'.

"This might be explained by Barrow’s high rate of heart disease, respiratory illness, Type 2 diabetes, and its greater-than-average proportion of elderly residents.

"A 2016 report also showed a quarter of its population were claiming disability benefits. The national average is 16 per cent.

"Sinister-looking signs warn approaching motorists they would endanger their lives, and face serious criminal proceedings, should they be foolish enough to venture any further."

"Unless government boffins can find an acceptable explanation for Barrow’s anomalous infection rate, how long will it be before the first ‘Covid Curtain’ descends?"

Barrow MP Simon Fell has described national reporting of the area's high infection rate as 'irresponsible'.

"The last week has been marked by story after story in the press - amplified by Facebook and other social media - calling out Barrow and South Lakes as coronavirus hotspots," he said.

"Frankly, much of that reporting has been completely irresponsible. Rather that considering facts, they've preferred to scaremonger, selectively quote, and draw imagery from horror films, than reflect the reality here in Barrow & Furness.

"The absolutely key thing to consider is testing. We are lucky enough to be served by the excellent University Hospitals Morecambe Bay Trust.

"They went against the grain at the beginning of this pandemic and began rigorously testing staff and patients before other trusts were doing so.

"Indeed, the Director of Public Health for Cumbria, Professor Colin Cox, believes we may have tested between 2 and 3 times MORE people than in most areas in England. That testing has also extended to care homes in Furness which has, until recently, not featured in other areas' figures.

"It goes without saying that the more people you test, the higher the number of results. Experts from the Department for Health, Public Health England and Cumbria County Council believe that is why the three areas covered by UHMBT (Barrow, South Lakes, Lancaster) are showing high levels of infection at this time - because of the sheer amount of testing that has been done locally.

"I say this not to minimise or dismiss these figures, but rather to put them into context. They are not by any means a measure we should be using to compare ourselves against other areas at this time.

"It is also worth noting that if you consider the number of COVID-19 deaths by hospital trust, we rank nowhere near the top of that list. There are considerable issues of using that terrible metric as your measure too, but clearly it shows that some of the irresponsible reporting about Cumbria being 'worst hit' by the virus are very far from the mark.

"When methodology is standardised, and we are comparing like for like, we will be able to look at these figures in such a way. But at present, what these figures reflect is a high degree of testing and little else."