Sixty per cent of England will be in toughest Tier 3 lockdown by TONIGHT: Another 11m people in London and the South East are hit with new restrictions from midnight after daily cases rose 37% to 20,263
Vast swathes of the South East will be thrust into the harshest set of Covid restrictions from midnight tonight
Matt Hancock said tough new rules will come into effect in London just after midnight on Wednesday morning
Large areas of Hertfordshire and Essex will also go into Tier 3 after seeing sharp and exponential growth
Change will leave 34m people in England under the top-tier of Covid rules, which force restaurants to shut
COVID daily cases jump 50% in a week to 18,450 as ministers threaten to CANCEL Christmas: Pressure on Boris to scrap five-day break from restrictions as Government crisis talks with other UK leaders fail to reach agreement
Restrictions are supposed to be eased to allow up to 3 households to meet for 5 days over the festive period
But scientists fear this could fuel new Covid variant that may be behind a surge of cases in southern England
Urgent talks are under way in Whitehall on whether to tighten regulations in response to rising cases
Leading medical journals have published rare joint editorial calling for the relaxation to be abandoned
AP
Police officers wear face masks Monday as they patrol an anti-lockdown demonstration in Parliament Square, in London.
AP
Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock updates MPs on the areas which will be moved into Tier 3, in the House of Commons, London, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020.
AP
Restaurant staff orgainze tables outside, in Soho, London, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. Britain’s health secretary says London and it surrounding areas will be placed under the highest level of coronavirus restrictions beginning Wednesday as infections rise rapidly in the capital.
AP
Resident Annie Innes, 90, receives the Pfizer BioNTech covid-19 vaccine at the Abercorn House Care Home in Hamilton, Scotland, Monday Dec. 14, 2020.
England sees ‘exponential’ COVID-19 surge that may be associated with new coronavirus variant
Updated Dec 15, 2020;
Posted Dec 15, 2020
Lorna Lucas, 81, reacts as she receives the first of two Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine jabs in London on Tuesday, Dec. 8, as British health authorities rolled out the first doses of a widely tested and independently reviewed COVID-19 vaccine. Some people who took COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trials reported mild side effects.AP
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LONDON London and its surrounding areas will be placed under Britain’s highest level of coronavirus restrictions beginning Wednesday as infections rise rapidly in the capital, the health secretary said Monday, adding that a new variant of the virus may be to blame for the spread.
LONDON (AP) London and its surrounding areas will be placed under Britain s highest level of coronavirus restrictions beginning Wednesday as infections rise rapidly in the capital, the health secretary said Monday, adding that a new variant of the virus may be to blame for the spread.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government must take swift action after seeing “very sharp, exponential rises” in Greater London and nearby Kent and Essex. He said in some areas cases are doubling every seven days.
The surge of COVID-19 cases in southern England may be associated with a new variant of coronavirus, Hancock told lawmakers. He said officials are assessing the new strand, but stressed there was nothing to suggest it was more likely to cause serious disease, or that it wouldn’t respond to a vaccine.