Health secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed that London is moving into “high” coronavirus restrictions, along with several other hotspots of the disease in England.
London, Essex, York, Barrow-in-Furness and parts of Derbyshire and Surrey will be moved into Tier 2 restrictions from one minute past midnight on Saturday morning, Mr Hancock told the House of Commons.
But he said that Boris Johnson’s plan to move Greater Manchester and Lancashire into the toughest “very high” alert status had been shelved, after meeting resistance from local leaders demanding more financial support.
Signalling that the government has not given up hope of escalating restrictions in these areas, the health secretary told MPs that discussions were ongoing with councils and mayors and “rapid progress” was still needed.
Mr Hancock told MPs that England’s situation was “grave and serious”, with the virus spreading “exponentially” but unevenly around the country. And he warned that “things will get worse before they get better”.
In London, cases were doubling every 10 days, with he seven-day average case rate standing at 97 and “rising sharply”.
Despite half of the population now being under heightened restrictions, he insisted that the government was sticking to its regional approach, targeting areas where Covid infections are rising fastest.
“We must take firm and balanced decisions to keep this virus under control,” he said.
“This is the only way to protect lives and livelihoods and we must act now.
“Delayed action means more deaths from Covid. It means more non Covid deaths, and it means more economic pain later, because the virus comes down slower than it goes up.
“Unless we suppress the virus, we can’t return to the economy we’ve had, unless we suppress the virus we cannot keep non-Covid NHS services going. And unless we suppress the virus we cannot keep the elderly and the vulnerable safe and secure.”
Mr Hancock said that local action had “flattened the curve” of Covid infections in Leicester and Bolton.
“High” level restrictions will be imposed from midnight on Friday evening in London, York, Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria and all of Essex except for Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea, he said. Also affected are the Derbyshire districts of Erewash, Chesterfield and North-East Derbyshire and Elmbridge in Surrey.
Under the Tier 2 restrictions, residents will be banned from socialising with anyone from outside their household or support bubble in any indoor setting, whether at home or in a public place.
They will be urged to make as few journeys as possible, though they will not be told to remain in their homes. Pubs, restaurants and shops will remain open, with the 10pm curfew for hospitality venues remaining in place. The “Rule of Six” limit on gatherings outside is unchanged.
“I know that these measures are not easy but I also know that they are vital,” said Mr Hancock
“Responding to this unprecedented pandemic requires difficult choices, some of the most difficult choices any government has to make in peacetime.
“We make these decisions with a heavy heart with the sole aim to steering our nation through troubled waters.
“Things will get worse before they get better but I know that there are brighter skies and calmer seas ahead.”
London mayor Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement: “Time and again it has been shown that it is better to act earlier than to act too late. I am not willing to put Londoners’ lives at risk and we must do all we can to minimise economic damage.
“I know these further restrictions will require Londoners to make yet more sacrifices, but the disastrous failure of the test, trace and isolate system leaves us with little choice.”
Mr Khan called for immediate financial support for affected businesses, local authorities and “vulnerable Londoners struggling to get by”.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth warned that “more people will fall into poverty and destitution” as a result of the tightened restrictions if no further economic support was made available.
“While I don’t quibble or object to the public health interventions he is making, I am afraid they are still not backed up with the financial package that is needed to mitigate the impact on jobs and livelihoods,” Mr Ashworth told the Commons.
He repeated Labour’s call for a two to three week national “circuit-breaker” lockdown and offered to work constructively with the government to deliver it.
“A full national lockdown stretching for weeks and weeks and weeks, like we had through April, May and June, would be disastrous for society,” said Mr Ashworth.
“But we are urging him to adopt a short, time-limited two to three week circuit-break to take back control of the virus, to reboot and fix test and trace, to protect the NHS, to save lives.”
David Finch, leader of Essex County Council, welcomed the decision to move the county onto high alert status, which he said was “guided by the science and the fact that the number of cases in Essex is rising exponentially.”
