Tier 4: Jenrick says he can't 'prejudge' possible extra steps

Matt Hancock has announced that more parts of the UK will be put into tier 4 restrictions on Boxing Day. It comes after the number of Covid cases has continued to rise in recent weeks, largely caused by the identification of a new coronavirus variant.

The Health Secretary said that tier 3 wasn’t enough to control the new variant of Covid.

Parts of the South East of England and London have seen Covid cases continue to rise exponentially, after the new strain of coronavirus was identified.

That means that more parts of the UK have been forced to enter into tier 4.

The new restrictions will come into force from 12.01am on Boxing Day, Hancock confirmed.

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Areas moving into tier 4:

• Sussex
• Oxfordshire
• Suffolk
• Norfolk
• Cambridgeshire
• Essex (not already in tier 4)
• Waverley, Surrey
• Hampshire (including Portsmouth and Southampton but not the New Forest)

“Against the backdrop of rising infections, and rising hospital numbers… and rising numbers of people dying from coronavirus, it is absolutely vital that we act,” said the Health Secretary.

“We simply cannot have the kind of Christmas that we all yearn for.

“We know that the three-tier system worked in controlling the old variant, and is working now in large parts of the country, especially in northern England.

“But we also know that tier 3 is not enough to control the new variant. This is not a hypothesis. It is a fact and we’ve seen it on the ground.”

The areas entering into tier 4 restrictions join a large proportion of the South East in the toughest rules.

Earlier this month, the government announced that Kent, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Surrey (excusing Waverley), London, Bedford, Milton Keynes, Luton, Peterborough, Hertfordshire and parts of Essex were all entering tier 4.

The tier 4 rules have been likened to the national lockdown, where all non-essential shops have been forced too close.

People in Tier 4 areas must stay home, and all non-essential retail is forced to shut.

All visitors are banned from entering each others’ houses or gardens.

You can only meet one person from another household outside, in a public place.

Travelling outside of a Tier 4 area is completely banned.

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