More areas in the East, South East and parts of the South West of England will be placed in Tier 4 to battle the growing number of coronavirus cases, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced.
The measure will come into force on Boxing Day.
It will apply to Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, parts of Essex currently not covered and Waverley in Surrey.
Hampshire, with the exception of the New Forest, will also be moved into Tier 4.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the creation of Tier 4 on Saturday – the toughest level of regional restrictions intended to clamp down on COVID-19 hotspots.
It came after a new coronavirus variant was credited with pushing infection numbers to record high levels.
Areas put into the highest band of measures were:
- In southeast England: London, Kent, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Surrey (excluding Waverley), Gosport, Havant, Portsmouth, Rother and Hastings
- In eastern England: Bedford, Central Bedford, Milton Keynes, Luton, Peterborough, Hertfordshire and Essex (excluding Colchester, Uttlesford and Tendring).
Plans to let people see family and friends over Christmas were also overhauled, with people in Tier 4 told they could not meet anyone outside their household apart from one person for exercise.
For everyone else, the “Christmas bubbles” plan was changed to apply only on Christmas Day – instead of the original 23-27 December.
Questions remain over whether Tier 4 will be enough to stop the growth of COVID-19.
Prof Neil Ferguson, a government adviser whose modelling contributed to the first national lockdown, said while schools were closed he had “more confidence” the R number – the average number of people someone with coronavirus passes it on to – could come back under 1.
“But we will see really what will happen in the next two weeks,” he cautioned.
“If we – hopefully as we will do – see a significant decline in the case numbers both of the variant and non-variant it will offer us greater confidence going into the new year that maybe Tier 4 might be sufficient.
“If we don’t, of course we’re in a more difficult situation.”
