Matt Hancock says police 'will enforce the law' on UK travellers

Speaking today in a coronavirus press briefing from Downing Street, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced gloomy figures surrounding the Covid pandemic. Cases in the UK have risen by a staggering 57 percent in the last week alone, while there are currently 1,109 people in hospital due to Covid-19. In addition, there are 18,943 people in hospital with Covid – almost as many as there were at the peak of the infection in April. There were 691 deaths recorded from Covid yesterday alone. 

Speaking today, Matt Hancock announced more areas will be plunged into Tier 4. 

These areas include: 

• Sussex
• Oxfordshire
• Norfolk
• Cambridgeshire
• Hampshire
• Waverley

The Health Secretary said: “From 12.01am on Boxing Day, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. 

“Those parts of Essex not yet in Tier 4, Waverley in Surrey and Hampshire including Portsmouth and Southampton but with the exception of the New Forest, will all be escalated to Tier 4.”

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The areas being plunged into Tier 4 aren’t the only ones to get bad news today. 

Mr Hancock also outlined areas of England moving up to higher tiers due to rising rates of infection. 

The Health Secretary added: “Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, including the North Somerset council area, Swindon, the Isle of Wight, the New Forest and Northamptonshire as well as Warrington will all be escalated to Tier 3. 

“And I’m afraid that Cornwall and Herefordshire have seen sharply rising rates and need to be escalated to Tier 2.”

The changes in the Tier system, namely the addition of Tier 4, comes as the old system was said not to be working effectively in reducing infection rates. 

Mr Hancock said: “We know the 3-Tiered system worked to control 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 our hypothesis, it is a fact and we have seen it on the ground. 

“We’ve seen case rates rise in some of the places close to where the current Tier 4 restrictions are, in places like East Anglia where we are seeing a significant number of the new variant and we’ve seen case rates rise sharply.”

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It comes as the Health Secretary announced that two new cases have been detected of yet another foreign Covid strain. 

Mr Hancock said: “Both are contacts of cases who have travelled from South Africa over the past few weeks.”

He added: “The new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant that has been discovered in the UK.

“We are incredibly grateful to the South African government for the rigour of their science and the openness and the transparency with which they have rightly acted as we did when we discovered a new variant here.”

Justifying the decision to plunge more areas into the most stringent restrictions, he said: “It is therefore necessary to put more of the East and South East of England into Tier 4. 

“We’re also taking action in parts of the south west, where there are some early signs of the new variant and where cases are rising.”

Care home staff in England will start receiving two rapid-result tests a week in addition to regular testing in an effort to keep the new variant at bay. 

Health officials have also brought forward plans for care home staff to receive twice-weekly lateral flow device tests (LFDs) as concerns mount in regards to the newly discovered variant. 

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