Fifth of England to live under tier 3 restrictions as second wave takes hold
Nearly a fifth of England will soon be living under the harshest coronavirus restrictions.
Eleven million people will be in tier three lockdown next week as a second Covid-19 wave grips the country.
Nottinghamshire entered tier 3 on Friday morning, while West Yorkshire is due to move up to the highest alert level from Monday.
This will mean 19.6% of the population will be living in the ‘very high’ alert level.
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However, millions more could soon be in tier three, with the areas of Tees Valley and the West Midlands likely to be moved up.
Local authority sources in the West Midlands said the ‘very high’ alert level could be imposed ‘by the end of next week or the start of the following week’.
Meanwhile, leaders in the Tees Valley said the Government had told them it intended to raise their area into Tier 3, although no agreement has been reached yet.
More than a dozen regions are also set to be pushed into tier two, as infections soar and the number of patients in hospitals continues to rise.
East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston-Upon-Hull, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, Dudley and Oxford will all enter the ‘high’ alert level, the Government said this week.
Staffordshire, Telford, the Wrekin, Amber Valley, Bolsover, Derbyshire Dales, Derby City, South Derbyshire, the whole of High Peak, Charnwood and Luton are also moving into tier two.
New data from NHS England shows the number of hospital beds in England occupied by confirmed coronavirus patients has more than doubled in two weeks – from 4,105 on October 13 to 8,595 on Tuesday.
The figures also show there were 743 Covid-19 patients in mechanical ventilation beds in England on Tuesday, up from 560 on the same day the previous week.
The NHS Test and Trace system also recorded its highest-ever weekly number of positive cases, while a study by Imperial College London found almost 100,000 people are catching Covid-19 every day.
Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to impose another country-wide lockdown, as numerous experts champion a national approach.
The prime minister has continuously insisted local lockdowns are the correct approach – but Home Secretary Priti Patel warned she ‘ruled out nothing’ on Thursday.
She said: ‘I think at this stage, of course, we can rule nothing out because we are a Government that is focused on making sure that we stop the spread of this virus and also (that) we protect public health.
‘So we have been using, and we are using and we will continue to use, every single means available to us to do exactly that.’
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