A map shows the areas of the country that are coronavirus hotspots, either already having intervention such as a local lockdown or facing further restrictions if things don’t improve.

Red regions are marked as ‘intervention’, while orange regions require ‘enhanced support’ and yellow regions are areas of ‘concern’ to be closely monitored.

It comes as nearly 10 million Britons have been put under tougher local lockdown restrictions due to spikes in coronavirus cases, across the North East of England.

In an attempt to curb the drastic increases, Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed today that a 10 pm curfew and pubs and bars will be in effect from tomorrow.

Newcastle, Bolton, Bradford, and County Durham are among the more than 30 areas that have been subjected to the stricter lockdown rules, while other areas were also given new partial lockdowns.

But areas such as Middlesborough, Wirral and Hertsmere may soon join this list of areas where the virus is hitting the hardest, as their cases rise. They are included on the Public Health England watchlist.

While local chiefs insist that regions under new measures are not subject to ‘lockdowns’ in the same way they were in March, they do go further than the ‘rule of six’ implemented nationwide.

The new restrictions will ban residents in these areas from socialising with other people outside of their support bubbles or homes. Pubs, bars and other hospitality services can only run table service and leisure and entertainment venues are to be shut between 10 pm to 8 am.

Announcing the North East measures which are set to begin at midnight, Heath Secretary Matt Hancock has said: ‘I know that these decisions have a real impact on families, businesses and local communities.

‘I can tell everyone affected we do not take these decisions lightly. We agree with the local councils that we must follow the data and act, and the data says we must act now, to control the virus and keep people safe. I know the people of the North East will come together to beat this virus, and beat it we must.’

‘We’ve seen concerning rates of infection in parts of the North East. Sunderland, for example, now has an incidence rate of 103 positive cases per 100,000 population. And in South Tyneside, Gateshead and Newcastle, figures are all above 70,’ he added.

Currently the government uses the measure of 20 cases per 100,000 to determine whether or not to impose quarantine restrictions on foreign travel. The highest case area on the concern list, Hertsmere, has more than double this.

See the list to know if your town is amongst the 15 that are listed as causes for concern by Public Health England:

Local authority watch list – towns of concern as cases rise per 100,000

• Hertsmere 53.7
• Wirral 43.6
• Middlesborough 42
• Hartlepool 38.6
• Liverpool 31.1
• Sefton 20.9
• Knowsley 30.1
• Sheffield 28.5
• Peterborough 27.9
• Northampton 25.8
• Stoke-on-Trent 25
• Norwich 20.5
• South Norfolk 10.9
• Broadland 3.1
• North Norfolk 2.9

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