London and Essex Covid alert upgraded to Tier2

Millions of Londoners and people from Essex will face tougher Tier2 Covid measures from Saturday, with a ban on households mixing indoors. Under Tier2, households are also barred from mixing in pubs and restaurants and people should aim to reduce the use of public transport, amid Manchester moving to the highest level of Covid restrictions. Liverpool is considering a two-week half-term break for schools as part of its “ battle with Covid-19”, under which pupils would be taught remotely at home for the second week.

Sir Kier Starmer, Labour leader wants a temporary national “ circuit breaker” to stem the spread of the disease which Boris Johnson is reluctant to enforce.

Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP for Harlow in Essex said he would welcome Tier 2 measures for the county but would call on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to prevent businesses from suffering financially from the move. He said:” The key issue is if we don’t do this now we could face the much higher restrictions in a few weeks which would be even worse for businesses.

On Wednesday  a further 19, 724 cases and 137 deaths in the UK were announced taking the total to 43, 155 deaths with 654, 644 infected.  The capital 3, 640 pubs, and 7, 556 restaurants will not be eligible for government support available to premises that have been ordered to close because of the tier change.

The rules state if you live in tier two (high risk) or tier three (very high risk) area you will not be able to stay overnight at someone else’s house. You are not permitted to mix households indoors, neither in a private home nor public venue unless the other person is in your support or childcare bubble.

Guidance implemented when the rule of six was introduced stated that couples are allowed to stay at each other’s home overnight if they were in an established relationship. This remains the case for tier-one areas.

But the exemption no longer applies to tier two and tier three areas meaning sex has become illegal once again for thousands of couples plunged into tier two and tier three lockdown restrictions.

Burrow-in-Furness, Chesterfield, Elmbridge, Erewash, North East Derbyshire, York, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Leicester, the North East of England, Nottingham, South Yorkshire, Warrington, the West Midlands, and West Yorkshire are also in tier2.

Lancashire and the Liverpool city region have been moved to tier three and are subject to the country’s most severe lockdown restrictions.