Six million more plunged into highest Tier 4 coronavirus lockdown now Christmas is over

Six million more people have woken up on Boxing Day to tightened Tier 4 Covid curbs.

Some 24 million people are under the strictest measures after more areas of the UK were lifted into Tier 4 at a minute past midnight.

The briefest relaxation was allowed in Tiers 1, 2 and 3 so families could celebrate Christmas Day.

But as the clock heralded Boxing Day, tougher restrictions are back.

Areas moving to Tier 4 are: Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, those parts of Essex not yet in Tier 4, Waverley in Surrey and Hampshire including Portsmouth and Southampton, except the New Forest.

Tier 4 restrictions include a warning to stay at home and a limit on household mixing to two people outdoors.

They also mean the closure of many shops, hairdressers and gyms.

The measures come in addition to Tier 3 ones such as pubs and restaurants closing, though takeaways and deliveries are still allowed.

Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset including the North Somerset Council area, Swindon, the Isle of Wight, the New Forest and Northamptonshire as well as Cheshire and Warrington will all go to Tier 3.

Cornwall and Herefordshire move from Tier 1 to Tier 2.

Boris Johnson, who spent yes­­terday in No10, said in a video: “This Christmas was “not about presents, or turkey, or brandy butter” but about hope – in the form of the several Covid-19 vaccines being developed.

He added: “It’s thanks to the efforts of wise men and wise women in the East and ­elsewhere, we have a vaccine and we know that we are going to succeed in beating coronavirus, and that these privations that we’re going through are temporary and we know that next year really will be better."

He added: “We know there will be people alive next Christmas, people we love, alive next Christmas precisely because we made the ­sacrifice and didn’t celebrate as normal this Christmas.”

Mr Johnson told the Politico website that he and fiancee Carrie Symonds, 32, had devoted more time to their dog and their eight-month-old son recently.

He said: “Carrie and I have been getting through lockdown by going on walks with Dilyn and spending weekends reading to Wilf.”

The Government last night said another 570 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the UK death total to 70,195. Separate figures from the UK’s statistics agencies indicated it was 86,000.

Those figures count deaths where Covid has been mentioned on a death certificate, together with additional data on deaths in recent days.

Another 32,725 cases were diagnosed, taking the UK total to 2,221,312.

The new coronavirus variant, first detected in Kent and which is thought to have fuelled the rapid spread of the disease, was yesterday found in Japan.

Passengers departing from the UK to the US must provide a negative test within 72 hours before take-off. The measure begins on Monday.

More than 50 nations have already imposed travel restrictions on Britons.

Mirror

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