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London to move into Tier 3 restrictions from Wednesday
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London is set to move into Tier 3 from Wednesday, it’s been reported this afternoon.
Matt Hancock told MPs that the capital would be moving to the highest Covid tier due to rising infection rates.
As well as London, other parts of the South East will also be moving into Tier 3 from just after midnight on Wednesday, Sky News reports.
It’s thought parts of Essex and Hertfordshire will also move into the highest tier.
Like in Greater Manchester, bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants will be forced to close in the capital, unless they’re providing takeaway, delivery or click and collect options.
Fans will be banned from football and other live sports once again and theatres will have to shut.
As it stands, Greater Manchester will still have to wait until Wednesday to find out our fate, and if we can drop down into Tier 2 in time for Christmas.
The good news is that the latest coronavirus infection figures for the week ending December 9th in Greater Manchester have been released, and they are down 7.7% from the week before.
The coronavirus infection rate has fallen again across our region, meaning hopes for Tier 2 have risen.
On average across Greater Manchester for the week ending December 9th, there were 153.4 positive tests for every 100,000 people in the local population, down 7.7% compared to the week before.
This puts the region significantly below the infection rate for England, which increased by 15% to 172.8 over the same period.
Daniel Nisbet / Flickr
The current infection rates across Greater Manchester vary dramatically from borough to borough, however, they all remain lower than London’s average (241.5 in the same period).
The falling case numbers across Greater Manchester is likely to raise hopes for the region to be placed into Tier 2 this week, where restrictions are more relaxed. This would mean pubs and restaurants would be able to reopen on the run-up to Christmas.
The lowest infection rate in Greater Manchester is in Tameside with 91.8, a fall of 32% from the previous week.
You can find more on the latest infection rates in our region here.