Over a third of the UK will be under local lockdowns from tomorrow
More than a third of the UK will be living under local lockdown rules when stricter restrictions are imposed in the north-west of England tomorrow.
Liverpool, Warrington, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough will be subject to the same restrictions already in place in Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, Sunderland and County Durham on Saturday.
Measures put in place to combat the surge in coronavirus cases in the North include making it illegal for households to mix indoors in any setting, meaning at home as well as at pubs and restaurants.
At the same time, new rules for travellers will also come into place – with holidaymakers already cancelling their plans after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Thursday that more countries will be removed from the quarantine exemption list.
Those returning from Turkey, Poland and the Caribbean islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba will have to isolate for 14 days if they arrive in England after 4am on Saturday.
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Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said there were ‘early signs’ that new restrictions imposed in the past month were beginning to have an impact.
He announced the new restrictions for the North West after telling MPs that in Liverpool alone there are now 268 cases per 100,000 people.
Reacting to the news, Middlesbrough’s independent mayor Andy Preston vowed to ‘defy the Government’ and ignore the strict lockdown.
He said: ‘As things stand we defy the Government and we do not accept these measures.’ He later clarified that he will urge people and businesses to comply with the regulations.
Local lockdowns also came into force in Denbighshire, Flintshire, Conwy and Wrexham in North Wales from 6pm on Thursday. In Northern Ireland, Derry and nearby town of Strabane will also face new restrictions next week.
Poland, one of the latest countries to be removed from the Government’s safe corridor list, has a seven-day rate of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people that has increased from 15.6 to 25.9 on the previous week.
Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba also reported 142.4 new cases per 100,000, unchanged from 142.4 in the previous week.
Turkey’s rate has dropped to 12.9 cases, down from 14.2 in the week prior.
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