COVID-19: London and other parts of South East to move into Tier 3 restrictions on Wednesday

London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire will move into the highest level of coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday.

The move will see thousands of bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants close in the capital and surrounding areas after Tuesday night, except for takeaway, delivery and click and collect services.

The Tier 3 measures, announced to MPs by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, will come into force at 00.01am on Wednesday.

Along with Greater London, the south and west of Essex will soon be under the “very high” alert level.

This includes:

• Basildon
• Brentwood
• Harlow
• Epping Forest
• Castle Point
• Rochford
• Maldon
• Braintree
• Chelmsford
• Thurrock
• Southend-on-Sea

The south of Hertfordshire will also move into Tier 3, which includes:

• Broxbourne
• Hertsmere
• Watford
• Three Rivers

Mr Hancock told the House of Commons that a “new variant of coronavirus” might be associated with the faster spread of infections in the South East.

But the health secretary stressed there was nothing yet to suggest the mutation was more likely to cause serious disease, or would fail to respond to a vaccine.

As well as the restrictions on hospitality, Tier 3 measures mean people must not meet socially indoors, in private gardens, or at most outdoors public venues with anyone they do not live with or are not in a support bubble with.

People living in Tier 3 areas should also avoid travelling outside their area and reduce the number of journeys they make wherever possible.

The heightened restrictions also mean fans will likely once again be banned from football stadiums and other sporting venues.

And theatres are also set to have to close their doors once more.

However, the “rule of six” will allow people from different households to continue meeting in small groups outdoors in parks, public gardens, playgrounds or outdoor sports facilities.

Mr Hancock told MPs the last week had seen “very sharp, exponential rises in the virus across London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire”.

The government is due to review the allocation of coronavirus tiers across the whole of England later this week.

But Mr Hancock told MPs he was acting ahead of the formal review date for London, Essex and Hertfordshire due to the sharp rise in infections and with hospitals “already under pressure” in those areas.

“We must act now to shift the curve, because when the virus is growing exponentially there is not a moment to spare,” he said.

With the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine continuing to be rolled-out across the UK, the health secretary told MPs that “help is on its way”.

“While we deploy the fruits of scientific endeavour to make the country safe, we must do what it takes to protect our loved ones and our NHS now,” Mr Hancock said.

“I know these steps are hard, but we must not waver as we enter the final stretch.”

The health secretary said affected businesses would be able to rely on government help through the furlough scheme and support for the self-employed.

He added the government had already begun to “surge” mobile testing into London, Essex and Kent, which is already in Tier 3.

Responding to Mr Hancock, Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said that “none of us are surprised at the action he is taking today”.

He also quizzed the health secretary on the government’s plans to keep people safe through Christmas and avoid huge pressures on the NHS in January.

“He was warned that Tier 2 would not be enough to contain the spread of the virus in many places,” Mr Ashworth said.

“Indeed, it looks like in some areas, such as Kent, Tier 3 is not enough to contain the spread either.

“Elsewhere in the country, Tier 3 does appear to be forcing the virus to flatline.

“Indeed, in the North West it is trending down. However, overall the increasing areas are rising faster than the decreasing areas are falling.

“As things stand, we are heading into the Christmas easing with diminishing headroom. The buffer zone that the tiers were supposed to provide is getting much thinner.”

In reply, Mr Hancock told people to be “cautious and careful” at Christmas, while he also suggested people should avoid travel into central London to do Christmas shopping from Wednesday.

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London mayor Sadiq Khan said the news was “incredibly disappointing for our businesses who have suffered so much already this year”.

“But it’s clear that the virus is accelerating in the wrong direction once again across London and the lives of Londoners are at risk,” he added.

“It would be such a tragedy to lose even more people to this disease when the vaccine is now being rolled out across our city.”

Mr Khan urged Londoners to abide by the Tier 3 rules in an effort to avoid “yet another full lockdown” in the New Year.

The Confederation of British Industry warned that “thousands of jobs and livelihoods could be at risk” due to the government moving London into Tier 3.

(c) Sky News 2020: COVID-19: London and other parts of South East to move into Tier 3 restrictions on Wednesday