Prisons in Kent may have acted as a “catalyst” at the epicentre of a major Covid-19 outbreak that has spread to London, helping push the capital into Tier 3, according to experts and jail insiders.
Four of the top five areas with the highest Covid rates in England are centred around the Kent borough of Swale and its Isle of Sheppey, where there are three prisons, one of which had one of the biggest jail outbreaks of Covid-19 this autumn.
The four sit on a commuting corridor that appears to have helped drive the Covid-19 virus into south east London, which looks set to join Kent in facing the highest level of restrictions in the run-up to Christmas.