More areas face Tier 3 curbs as exit strategy set out

LONDON: Hundreds of thousands more people are expected to be placed under the toughest coronavirus restrictions this week as ministers opened up on how areas could exit their lockdown measures.

Parts of Nottinghamshire look set to be the next to enter the highest Tier 3 alert level in England after discussions carried on through the weekend. Local politicians have indicated that they expect the new measures could come into force as early as tomorrow (Wednesday).

The council in Warrington in Cheshire has already said it will be joining Tier 3 on Thursday, with Downing Street saying discussions are still “ongoing”.

It comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock said areas would have to prove that their infection rate was “coming down”, especially among those aged 60 or over, before they could be removed from the strictest measures.

He has also refused to rule out bringing in a tougher set of Tier 4 impositions following reports another level is being considered to tackle England’s rise in infections.

Going into Tier 3 means pubs and bars have to close unless they serve meals while households are banned from mixing indoors or in private gardens and beer gardens. Over the weekend, South Yorkshire became the latest region to come under the highest tier of controls following Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

Asked about the criteria for an area to exit Tier 3, Hancock told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The first thing that’s most important is that the case rate has to be coming down, and in particular we look at the number of cases amongst the over-60s because that’s the number that is likely to translate into hospital admissions and sadly into deaths.”

Hancock also suggested a vaccine would not provide an escape route from the social restrictions until next year. Quizzed on Today about whether there would be some roll-out of a vaccine this year, he said: “Well, I don’t rule that out, but that is not my central expectation.

“The vaccine programme is progressing well. The leading candidates we’re in very close contact with. On my central expectation, I would expect the bulk of the roll-out to be in the first half of next year.”

The government said a further 151 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Sunday, bringing the UK total to 44,896, and there had been a further 19,790 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number in the UK to 873,800.