Almost 70% of England’s population is now living under tier 3 restrictions

A total of 38 million people across England will soon be living under tier 3 Covid rules, after the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced more parts of the country would have to move into the “very high” measures from Saturday.

The changes mean 68 per cent of England’s population will live in toughest tier areas, where pubs and restaurants are shut – except for takeaways – and cinemas and other leisure facilities are also closed.

Around 5 million of those live in areas newly added to tier 3: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Peterborough, the whole of Hertfordshire, Surrey with the exception of Waverley, Hastings and Rother in East Sussex, and Portsmouth, Gosport and Havant in Hampshire.

However, two areas are easing from tier 3 to tier 2 from Saturday morning: Bristol and North Somerset, meaning pubs, restaurants and other entertainment venues will be able to open their doors. It leaves around 30 per cent of England’s population in tier 2, while only two per cent will be in tier 1.

Mr Hancock said the changes were necessary to curb rising infections in many parts of the country. “As we enter the coldest months we must be vigilant and keep this virus under control,” he told MPs in the Commons.

Mr Hancock said case rates in the southeast of England are up 46 per cent in the last week while hospital admissions are up by more than a third. In the east of England cases are up two-thirds and hospital admissions up by nearly half in the last week.

“This is a moment when we act with caution,” the health secretary said, adding that the UK has “come so far” and “mustn’t blow it now”.

Downing Street did not rule out the possibility of England going back into lockdown if cases continue to rise, following the announcement that Wales will enter the toughest level 4 lockdown restrictions on 28 December.

Boris Johnson’s official spokesman stressed that the PM wants to stick with his regionalised approach for England and said there were no plans to toughen tiers or introduce a tier 4 for areas where tier 3 has not stemmed infections. 

But asked if a third lockdown was ruled out, he said only: “We will obviously keep the latest data and latest trends under review, as has been the case throughout, but the winter Covid plan sets out the path to the spring and that is focused around the regionalised tiered approach.”

There was disappointment for areas like Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Tees Valley and parts of the northeast and Yorkshire which had been hoping to be moved down to tier 2 after seeing infection rates drop over recent weeks.  

Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham said he was “not surprised, but very disappointed” that his region was staying in tier 3. “Greater Manchester today has lower rates than Liverpool and London had when they were originally put into tier 2,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.

“One can only conclude that it’s the changed context in London and the south east which has changed the national context which has led to everybody in the north of England staying in restrictions.

“It feels like if the north has rising cases, the north goes under restrictions; if London and the south east has rising cases, everyone stays under restrictions.”

There was frustration in South Yorkshire that the area would also remain in the highest level. Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis said it was “another hammer blow” for businesses. “Once again, mayors and local leaders have been cut out of the decision-making process and not even afforded the basic courtesy of being consulted,” he said.

Buckingham’s Conservative MP Greg Smith said he was “disappointed” that his largely rural constituency had been put into tier 3 despite having much lower levels of infection than the commuter belt towns in the south of the county.

Mr Smith said he had been given an undertaking that restrictions would not be applied in a blanket way to the county, telling Times Radio:  “I can't look any of my constituents in the eye and say tier 3 restrictions are reasonable or proportionate to the place we find ourselves with Covid-19. 

“When I backed the tier system a couple of weeks ago, I only did so on the promise that the rural parts of Buckinghamshire – my constituency – would be looked at separately to the rest of the county.”

Health chiefs in Herefordshire warned people not to drop their guard, despite being the only area in the country to drop into tier 1 following the government review. “We still have a long way to go in the fight against this virus,” Dr Rebecca Howell-Jones, the area’s acting director of public health.

Under the lowest tier, the rule of six applies both indoors and outdoors and pubs can stay open until 11pm, with last orders an hour before. In all, only about 900,000 people in total will be living under tier 1 measures, heading into Christmas.

The announcement came after the first fortnightly review by the government’s Covid Operations (CO) committee of the tier system introduced on 2 December. The tiers will be reviewed again on 30 December.