LONDON (Reuters) – A wider area of east and southeast England will be placed under the most stringent restrictions to tackle the rising number of COVID-19 infections from this weekend, British health minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday.
Britain, like other countries, is struggling to tame a second wave of novel coronavirus cases and rising deaths, with the government under pressure for pressing ahead with its decision to relax measures for five days over Christmas.
The government has urged caution over Christmas, suggesting that people should limit their celebrations and keep them small and local, qualifying earlier advice which suggested travelling to see family members was allowed.
Hancock said the number of cases in the southeast of England were up by 46% in the last week, while hospital admissions were up by more than a third. In eastern England, cases were up by two-thirds, he said, and hospital admissions by nearly half.
“It is therefore necessary to apply tier 3 measures across a much wider area of the east and southeast of England,” he told parliament, referring to the strictest level of a tiered COVID restrictions system.
He said the new measures would be in force from 0001 GMT on Saturday, urging people to work together to follow the rules to try to bring the case numbers down.
“For the vast majority currently in tier 3 we are not making a change today. However … I am pleased to say that some places can go down a tier … Bristol and north Somerset will come out of tier 3 into tier 2 on Saturday,” he said, adding that Herefordshire in central England would move to tier 1.
(Reporting by William James and Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Andrew MacAskill and Michael Holden)
