A "local lockdown" has been enforced on Leicester as the city deals with a spike in Covid-19 cases.
A rise in coronavirus cases in the East Midlands city has left schools, shops and non-essential businesses forced to close this week.
While the rest of the country faces life post-lockdown from this Saturday, with pubs and hairdressers re-opening, Leicester faces two more weeks of lockdown - at least.
The government announced the new measures on Monday evening and soon after a list of 36 places in England with rising coronavirus cases emerged.
Sandwell and Walsall were included, suggesting both West Midlands towns could face a local lockdwon in future.
But what needs to happen for a local lockdown in Birmingham - or a nearby town or county?
Public Health England said there was no threshold for determining when a local lockdown should be implemented.
Advice will be given on a case-by-case basis and decisions taken by leaders based on this advice and the specific circumstances of the area, it added.
Mr Hancock told the House of Commons that "decisions are taken through our Local Action Committee command structure."
The Health Secretary added: "If Public Health England or the Joint Biosecurity Centre spots a problem that needs attention or the local director of public health reports a problem through the regional health protection teams, then the outbreak is assessed at the daily Local Action Committee Bronze meeting.
"Issues of concern are raised to the Local Action Committee Silver meeting, which is chaired by the chief medical officer.
"And problems requiring ministerial attention are then raised to the Local Action Committee Gold meeting."
Council and public health leaders have said local authorities have the powers needed to tackle outbreaks in schools, businesses or care homes.
But Greg Fell, Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) board member, told a committee of MPs this month that they did not have the power to shut down local areas or whole cities.
Any powers to lock down communities would need to be conferred to local leaders, he told the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee.
But he warned that if a city needed to be placed into lockdown "we may well be in national lockdown territory by that time".
Keith Neal, emeritus professor of the epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Nottingham, said one of the biggest problems is deciding who is in the lockdown and who is not.
He said that locking down at a regional level could be seen as "unfair" but if Leicester was placed in lockdown then questions remained about how much of the surrounding area should be included.
He added: "One of the biggest problems is deciding who is in the lockdown area and who is not. This needs to be understandable to both the people who are inside and the people on the outside.
"Locking down at the regional level would be seen as unfair or worse as Leicester city has really very little to do with rural Lincolnshire. People do not identify with their regional boundaries and many would not actually know where they are."
