Appearing via videolink from his test and trace-ordered quarantine, Boris Johnson has this afternoon unveiled new Coronavirus restrictions that will start at 1 minute past midnight next Wednesday and last until the end of March.
As the lockdown comes to an end, more parts of England are expected to be placed into higher tiers than they were before the national restrictions were imposed.
Each area will then be placed into tiers 1, 2 or 3, with initial allocations to be announced on Thursday and reviewed every two weeks from December 2nd.
Mr Johnson said “So we’re not going to replace national measures with a free for all, the status quo anti-Covid, we’re going to go back instead to a regional tiered approach – applying the toughest measures where Covid is most prevalent.
“And while the previous local tiers did cut the ‘R’ number, they were not quite enough to reduce it below one.
“So the scientific advice, I’m afraid, is that as we come out our tiers need to be made tougher.
“I’m sorry to say we expect that more regions will fall at least temporarily into higher levels than before but by using these tougher tiers and by using rapid turnaround tests on an ever greater scale to drive R below one and keep it there, it should be possible for areas to move down the (tier) scale to lower levels of restrictions.”
Swindonians will find out on Thursday which tier we will be placed in when Ministers will announce which tier each area will enter based on scientific analysis of the local prevalence of Covid-19.
