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London and Liverpool will be placed on Tier 2 of England’s new COVID-19 restriction system, but Birmingham and Manchester will be on Tier 3.
Matt Hancock is making a statement in the House of Commons on the new COVID-19 levels, but before the announcement, the government launched a postal code checker for regions of England.
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The website crashed within minutes of the zip code checker being launched.
The areas on Level 3 are:
• Greater Manchester
• Birmingham and Black Country
• Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
• Leeds
• Helmet
• City of Wolverhampton
• Kent and Medway
• South Yorkshire
• Hartlepool
• Middlesbrough
• Stockton-on-Tees
• Redcar and Cleveland
• Darlington
• Sunderland
• South Tyneside
• Gateshead
• North Tyneside
• Durham County
• Northumberland
• Lancashire
• Blackpool
• Blackburn with Darwen
• The Humber
• West Yorkshire
• Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent
• Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull
• Derby and Derbyshire
• Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
• Leicester and Leicestershire
• Lincolnshire
• Slough
• Bristol
• South Gloucestershire
• North Somerset
The areas in Level 2 are:
• Liverpool city region
• London
• Warrington and Cheshire
• Cumbria
• York
• North Yorkshire
• Northamptonshire
• Rutland
• Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes
• Herefordshire
• Worcestershire
• Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin
• Essex, Thurrock and Southend on Sea
• Norfolk
• Suffolk
• Hertfordshire
• Cambridgeshire, including Peterborough
• Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton
• Surrey
• Buckinghamshire
• Oxfordshire
• Reading
• Wokingham
• Bracknell Forest
• Windsor and Maidenhead
• West Berkshire
• Dorset
• Bournemouth
• Christchurch
• Poole
• South Somerset, Somerset West and Taunton, Mendip and Sedgemoor
• Bath and Northeast Somerset
• Gloucestershire
• Wiltshire and Swindon
• Devon
• East Sussex
• West Sussex
• Brighton and Hove
There are only three areas in Level 1:
• Isle of Wight
• Cornwall
• Isles of Scilly
Only 1% of the population, 714,000 people, will live under Tier 1 restrictions.
Around 32 million people, just over 57% of the population, will be at Level 2, while 23.3 million (41.5% of the population) will be at Level 3.
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‘Significant number of areas’ at Level 3
The tier system has been strengthened since the original rules were in place before the closure, with many more areas at the higher tiers in an attempt to keep infection rates low.
At Level 3, there should be no mix of indoor homes, or in most outdoor locations, with enclosed hospitality venues, except for take-out, drive-through, or delivery.
Indoor entertainment venues will also be closed, and people are urged to avoid traveling outside the area unless necessary.
At Level 2, there should be no mixing of homes indoors, other than supporting bubbles, with the rule of six applying outdoors.
Pubs and bars must close unless they function as restaurants, while hospitality venues can only serve alcohol with large meals.
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In a move intended to defuse the ire of local leaders and Conservative MPs, Boris Johnson has promised that tier assignments will be reviewed on December 16.
And in a bid to soften the blow for Tier 3 areas, ministers promise them access to rapid-result COVID-19 tests to help reduce infections, as well as cash grants.
Additional cash will also be offered to areas located at Level 2 and Level 3.
The Secretary of Health said that “these are not easy decisions, but they have been made in accordance with the best clinical advice.”
Hancock told MPs: “Thanks to everyone’s shared sacrifice in recent weeks, by following national restrictions, we have been able to begin to control the virus and slow its growth, relieving some of the pressure on the NHS.”
“We will do this by returning to a regional tiered approach, saving the toughest measures for parts of the country where the prevalence is still too high.”
