Tuesday briefing: 10 million more to enter tier 3 restrictions
Alison Rourke
Good morning and welcome to this Tuesday briefing with me, Alison Rourke.
Ten million people across London and parts of the south-east will enter tier 3 restrictions from Wednesday as the government steps up its bid to contain the coronavirus. Coming just two weeks after the national lockdown, and as the vaccine is rolled out, the health secretary Matt Hancock said it was a “salutary warning for the whole country”. He urged people to minimise all social contact, saying: “This isn’t over yet.” When the new restrictions come into force in London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire, 34 million people will be subject to the strictest rules. Downing Street has insisted the five-day relaxation over Christmas will not be reviewed, but more than 1,000 cases of the new Covid strain across 60 areas has prompted concerns over the potential cost of Christmas gatherings. You can read our Q&A on how the new strain may have spread in the south of the country and whether we should be worried about it. Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said there was no evidence the new strain was more dangerous and it would be picked up by tests. As infections rise in the capital, the government has launched legal action against Greenwich council’s planned school closures, using emergency coronavirus legislation for the first time to ensure face-to-face teaching continues until the end of term. Meanwhile, a leading public health authority, Sir Michael Marmot, known for his landmark work on the social determinants of health, says pre-existing social inequalities contributed to the UK’s death rate. The UN has warned that unless leaders make the right choices on recovering from the pandemic to avoid entrenching environmental problems and social inequalities, the world faces a future of lurching from crisis to crisis. And the Guardian’s Linda Geddes asks if Boris Johnson’s personal experience with Covid changed him.