This is bbc news, im reeta chakrabarti. The headlines. Nearly two Million People across most of the north east of england are set for tougher coronavirus restrictions from midnight, after a rise in cases. We do not take these decisions lightly. We agree with the local councils that we must follow the data and act, and the data says that we must act now. A similar story in south wales where almost half a Million People in Rhondda Cynon taff will have stricter lockdown rules from 6pm this evening. Meanwhile a sharp decline in the turnaround time for testing as the system struggles to keep up with demand. The british people honoured their side of the bargain. In return, the government was supposed to deliver effective testing and tracing. The government failed. If you have any questions on testing, do send them in using the hashtag below and well answer them in half an hour with a virologist and senior clinical lecturer. And back to spurs . Real madrid striker gareth bale is due to fly to england on friday to complete his return to tottenham hotspur. Tough new coronavirus restrictions affecting nearly 2 Million People in most of the north east of england come into effect at midnight tonight, after what local Council Leaders describe as an exponential rise in cases. The Health Secretary, matt hancock, told mps the government did not take
these decisions lightly, but the data said they must act now. The measures will affect people in newcastle, gateshead, north tyneside, south tyneside, and sunderland, together with northumberland and county durham. There will be a ban on residents socialising with other people outside their own households, the closure of pubs, leisure and Entertainment Venues at 10pm, and bars will be able to offer a Table Service only. The Health Secretary also said £2. 7 billion was being allocated to the nhs to help it cope through the coming winter months. Fiona trott reports. A north east night out during the pandemic. Like many towns and cities across england, enforcing social distancing has been hard. Now it seems there are consequences. Unless we act now, act swiftly and decisively, were going to see ourselves in the kind of really challenging position
that we were in march and april, with exponentially rising cases and hospitals packed to capacity with very ill people. None of us want to see that. These are the local Authority Areas who asked for tougher measures. Newcastle, gateshead, north tyneside, south tyneside, sunderland, northumberland and county durham. It will affect almost 2 Million People. And these are the measures being introduced at midnight tonight. Residents will not be able to socialise with anybody outside of their own household or support bubble. Bars will be restricted to Table Service only and all leisure and Entertainment Venues have to close after 10pm at night. I know, the whole house knows, that these decisions have a real impact on families, on businesses and on local communities. And i can tell everyone affected that we do not take these decisions lightly. This bar in newcastle is at its busiest after ten oclock at night. In a city where the night time
economy is said to be worth around £340 million per year, a ten oclock curfew will hit them hard. I think we will definitely see closures, which will mean redundancies. Pubs and restaurants, bars, cannot survive closing at ten oclock. Newcastle as a whole and the whole of the north east predominantly take a lot of their turnover after 10pm. Here in newcastle, most people say they are willing to follow the new rules. If it saves getting worse, you know, its just one of them things, youve got to put up with it. I think we should all keep our distance, and hopefully get out of lockdown quicker. I think its. Close down the pubs, clubs, thats where it spread. I think the blames being put more on young people, when its people i see in their 40s and 50s, not wearing face masks with their nose hanging out, theyre also going to the pubs as well. A region bracing themselves for tougher measures and a region which cannot afford a full lockdown. The council say these temporary measures have to work. Fiona trott, bbc news, newcastle. As weve been hearing, the county of Rhondda Cynon taff is to become the second area in wales after caerphilly to return to lockdown today. From 6pm this evening, its population of nearly a quarter of a million will have strict rules imposed on their daily lives. Tomos morgan reports. A brand new mobile Testing Centre in Rhondda Cynon taff, full this morning, after was announced from six oclock this evening this local authority will be back in a local lockdown. We are really disappointed weve got to this point because over the last week we have tried to take measures, we have tried to encourage people to do things differently, but u nfortu nately, people to do things differently, but unfortunately, the last five days of data, the number of cases and the Positivity Rate in Rhondda Cynon taff is growing. The rate and
transmission here is now around 7 , and part of the blame weeds down to members of this social club going on an outing to doncaster last week. Another factor being blamed an outing to doncaster last week. Anotherfactor being blamed is an outing to doncaster last week. Another factor being blamed is the lack of Safety Measures in some poems and bars, they will now have to close at 11pm poems and bars, they will now have to close at pm as a part of stricter measures, source of frustration for other landlords feeling they are being tarnished by the same broad brush. It is always a very frustrating for us. We are not aware of any person with covid in this area at all, and i know there are terrible areas elsewhere, which is very unfortunate, and our city is quite a big area, and ijust think it could have been localised. As well as a curfew on closing times, friends and families will no longer be able to meet indoors, overnight stays are also banned and masks are recommended to be worn in all busy outdoor spaces, such as the high
street. People are not adhering to social visiting, i have leukaemia social visiting, i have leukaemia social distancing, i get so frustrated when you see people with the aptitude of why should i wear a mask . I think it is a good thing, because at the end of the day what is going on is pathetic, it will be a good thing. The main guidance is that people will be banned from leaving and entering Rhondda Cynon taff, but there are some exceptions. The local university will remain open, for example, for students and teachers will be able to travel in and out of the county, as will essential workers. And everyone that can work from home must do so. It also means that any Holiday Plans have to also be put on hold. It was less tha n have to also be put on hold. It was less than a week ago the people in this area were given their final warning, follow the rules or risk being put under a local lockdown. Since then, Rhondda Cynon taff has recorded the highest number of positive covid tests across the whole of wales, so the Welsh Government felt they have no other
option and have implemented these measures. Measures that will be enforced for at least another two weeks. Tomos morgan, bbc news, Rhondda Cynon taff. Our Political Correspondent, jonathan blake, explained how these regional restrictions could affect the Governments National response. I think these latest local restrictions are another sign ofjust how much pressure there is on the government and on the country in general posed by coronavirus. It is a sign that there is a resurgence in the number of cases, and large parts of the uk are now living under tighter restrictions than they were. We are not back to the darkest days of lockdown when peoples movements were heavily restricted, but we are no means back to anything like life as normal. We had more bold claims from the government today about increasing the capacity for testing to 500,000 per day by the end of october,
£2. 5 billion of extra funding for the Health Service over the winter to try and help it cope. There is no shortage of bold ambition from this government in tackling the virus, but as we have seen, that hasnt always matched reality. There are more signs today that the situation around testing, for example, is getting worse, not better, with waiting times increasing. And you only have to look at the Health Secretary, Matt Hancocks comments in the house of commons this morning saying that the battle against coronavirus is not over, and that the Prime Minister is warning that the only way we can enjoy christmas is by getting tough now to see that the situation is almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better. In about 20 minutes time, well be trying to answer your questions on the new restrictions with our experts, virologist chris smith from the university of cambridge and dr Bharat Pankhania from the university of exeter. Send your questions using
the hashtag bbcyourquestions or email them using yourquestions bbc. Co. Uk the government has confirmed that care homes in england are to receive extra funding of more than half a billion pounds to help them tackle coronavirus over the winter. Ministers say they want to give peace of mind to the sector. 0ur correspondent alison holtjoins me now. Exactly what will the money be used for . This is an extension to an existing scheme, £546 million extra being put in to continue an Infection Control fund that was set up Infection Control fund that was set up back in may. And the scheme is used for, for instance, paying staff who are self isolating full wages or perhaps a retainer for agency staff to limit their movement between care homes. And the reasoning behind it is that this is to try and limit the roots into ca re is that this is to try and limit the roots into care home for the infection, because as we all remember, care homes had very high
death rate at the height of the pandemic, and staff was seeming as one of the roots into the care home for infection, but also people going backwards and forwards to hospitals. We are also expecting a winter plan from the government for tomorrow, that will be scrutinised really closely because care homes do want to know that there is notjust a plan, but they won action behind it, because last time around they felt very neglected, they felt forgotten. So there is a huge amount of importance and we will also be looking how far it extends, because we have been talking a lot about ca re we have been talking a lot about care homes, but it is important to also remember that there are very Vulnerable People being looked after by home carers, people going into their homes, and also in supported living. So for instance, people with learning disabilities being supported in the community, and they will all want to know that there is a plan to protect them during what could be some very tough months. So a complicated scenario. What sort of things does the sector want to see
in this winter plan . When i talk to people about a some thing that is coming back time and again at the moment is testing, and we have been talking so much about that, but they wa nt talking so much about that, but they want their rapid results because, i was speaking to eye care worker yesterday, her test was done on a friday and it didnt come back until the following friday, and that was when she was due to be retested, so they spent the whole week feeling worried about whether or not any of them wear a symptomatic and were therefore bringing the virus in. The other thing is, the increased costs, ca re other thing is, the increased costs, care providers one helped with increased cost of personal protective equipment, which went up and cost massively, but also they have sadly a lot of empty beds because of people not moving into ca re because of people not moving into care homes, but also because of the high number of deaths and that is also making the financial future of many homes very precarious. And they will want to know that there is
something, some sort of help on the way for the times when it gets really tough, because otherwise, i have had care providers say to me, what is a point and going on if you have to keep coming up against this brick wall and you dont feel you are getting the support . The tragedy of that is of course, we are talking about people, we are talking about elderly or vulnerable residents living a care homes and these are their homes. 0k, many thanks. Fewer coronavirus test results in england are coming back the next day, according to official nhs figures. Only one in three tests carried out in Community BasedTesting Centres were returned within 2a hours in the week until september 9th, thats down from two in three the week before. It comes amid reports of laboratories being overstretched. Heres our correspondent richard galpin. With winter now approaching, and coronavirus cases already
increasing, its no surprise demand for covid tests is shooting up. But there is a serious problem. The tests are processed in these mega laboratories built in haste after the virus took hold in the country. There are currently five of them, but they cannot process the test to confirm if someone has contracted the virus quickly enough and there is now a backlog leading to delays with people waiting for test results. The demand is what is actually causing the problem because demand has completely outstripped capacity. It is an unprecedented demand. We are seeing five or ten times the demand that we had just two weeks ago. The work at these labs requires Skilled Staff and vital equipment. Insiders say they are both difficult to get hold of. The academics and postgraduate students whove been working in the labs have reportedly now returned to their institutions. In many of the testing sites,
they actually have capacity to swab more people, but there is unfortunately nowhere to send it to because there is such a backlog of testing. Injust introducing more testing sites, that will not solve the problem. We have got to figure it out at the laboratory level. The government says more of these labs will be brought online, one in newcastle and another in bracknell, and claims it is the Largest Network of diagnostic Testing Facilities created in british history. It is a matter of using the record capacity we have got for the prioritised people who really need it, and making sure that it is protected for those who do really need it. But latest figures show turnaround times for receiving test results are getting longer in england. The situation in this country very much in contrast with germany, which has had a Large Network of laboratories to deal with the crisis for years. The germans have been using a network of about 200 labs
and each individual region has responsibility for testing in that state, and there are 16 federal states in germany. So its much less of a top down approach, like we have seen in some other countries including the uk. But its unlikely this german approach is something the uk government would consider. Richard galpin, bbc news. Chris allen is in surrey he and his family live close to a mobile testing site hejoins us now. You have been passed this mobile testing site fairly recently, havent you . Whinge to go past and what did you see . My family and i walked past a mobile Testing Centre on sunday, and out of curiosity, i went over to ask the guys a few questions, because everyone is standing around doing nothing, and i asked them, had they been busy, what they shared with me is that they had
been there all week and that they plan to be there until tomorrow. The first couple of days they were doing about 70 tests and they were quite busy, but the last but i asked the Maximum Capacity, and it turns out it was 400 per day, so even at their busiest day in the first couple of days they were running at i7 couple of days they were running at 17 or 18 , couple of days they were running at 17 or18 , i couple of days they were running at 17 or 18 , i have those friends that live nearby who were displaying symptoms at the government then says that you should go and see contest, go on to the government website, and they are unable to get a test, and then drove to the test centre around then drove to the test centre around the corner. Again, there are whole bunch of people standing around, no one is getting tested, there were several key workers including teachers who were just wanting to get tested, and unless you have the government code, they were not permitted to take a test, the guys said very clearly that they are not allowing people to take a test
without having booked in. So the test where they are, but people cannot get an appointment, and you actually saw people being turned away, did you . Exactly, dominic lives in the same area, hes a local mp, we were speaking about how ridiculous essays because i think eve ryo ne ridiculous essays because i think everyone in the public feels passionately about this ratio, obviously, him and his office have not responded yet. And i guess for me, i personally find it unforgivable and it sort of exemplifies how out of touch Boris Johnson is, they look at basically saying that people should stop carping on about the lack of testing, yet both of these guys went to the institution where every single people is being tested. Very recently. But they are not at eaton