Coronavirus lockdown measures in Leicester will only be partially lifted, Matt Hancock has said, with pubs, restaurants, bars and other parts of the hospitality sector remaining closed in the city centre. In a statement to the Commons, the health and social care secretary said Covid-19 rates in the city “still remain well above the national average and the average for surrounding areas”. But he added: “We’re now in a position to relax some but not all of the restrictions that were in place.” Restrictions on schools and nurseries in the city would be eased, Hancock told parliament. “From 24 July we’ll be removing the restrictions on schools and early years childcare and taking a more targeted approach to the restrictions on non-essential retail. “The latest data show that the seven-day infection rate in Leicester is now 119 cases per 100,000 people and the percentage of people testing positive is now at 4.8%.” Leicester’s Labour mayor, Peter Soulsby, said he was “angry, frustrated, very disappointed” about the news that some lockdown measures would remain. He said he believed Hancock had “released the Tory voters, and left the Labour and liberal voters locked in” in its amendment concerning where the localised measures applied. The eased restrictions apply to the city of Leicester, as well as to Oadby and Wigston, south of the city. Soulsby added that Leicester city council had only started to receive detailed data from the government two weeks ago. Now that they knew where the spikes of cases were occurring local authorities could “work with those communities” to help stop transmission. “That’s what we ought to be doing, not playing silly party-political games,” he added. Hancock’s announcement precedes an announcement on Friday by Boris Johnson, who is expected to tell the public that it is “safe to return to work in the coming weeks”. But in a potential blow to the prime minister’s hopes of getting more people back into offices, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told MPs on Thursday that he saw “absolutely no reason” for people to stop working from home. Vallance told the science and technology committee: “I think my view on this, and I think this is a view shared by Sage, is that we’re still at a time when distancing measures are important. And, of the various distancing measures, working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it’s easy to do.” Vallance also told the committee that the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had advised the government to impose a lockdown “as soon as possible” on 16 March. Rules enforcing social distancing did not come in until a week later. Asked about this later in the Commons, Hancock said he had made a statement to MPs on 16 March advising against unnecessary social contact, adding: “That is precisely when the lockdown was started.”