A new coronavirus variant is spreading rapidly through southern England, with London and parts of the commuter belt placed under tougher restrictions in response to soaring cases.
The UK capital and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire will face Tier 3 restrictions from Wednesday following “very sharp, exponential rises” in cases.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs the newly identified variant may be associated with the “faster spread” of the virus in the South East.
The Tier 3 restrictions will have a devastating impact on the capital’s nightlife, with theatres forced to shut and pubs and restaurants closed apart from takeaway and delivery services.
Warnings to avoid travel to Tier 3 areas will also deprive some of the UK’s busiest shopping centres of trade at the busiest time of the year.
The announcement moves almost 10.8 million people into Tier 3, with 61 per cent of England’s population under the toughest restrictions from Wednesday.
Mr Hancock told the Commons the new variant had been identified by experts and “initial analysis suggests that this variant is growing faster than the existing variant”.
“We have currently identified over a thousand cases of this variant, predominantly in the south of England, although cases have been identified in nearly 60 local authority areas and numbers are increasing rapidly.”
The health secretary said there was nothing to suggest the variant was more likely to cause serious disease and he suggested the vaccine should still be effective.
There had been similar variants in other countries and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been informed, he added.
Mr Hancock said it was necessary to move London from Tier 2 to Tier 3 to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed.
“Over the last week we have seen very sharp, exponential rises in the virus across London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire,” he said.
“We do not know the extent to which this is because of the new variant but no matter its cause we have to take swift and decisive action which unfortunately is absolutely essential to control this deadly disease while the vaccine is rolled out.
“In some parts of these areas the doubling time is around every seven days.”
Hospitals across the capital, Essex and Kent were already “under pressure”, he warned.
“We know that this doubling of cases will be mirrored in hospital admissions and it only takes a few doublings for the NHS to be overwhelmed.”
Areas moving to Tier 3 are: Greater London; south and west Essex including Basildon, Brentwood, Harlow, Epping Forest, Castle Point, Rochford, Malden, Braintree and Chelmsford along with Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea borough councils; and the south of Hertfordshire including Broxbourne, Hertsmere, Watford and the Three Rivers local authority.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the decision was “incredibly disappointing” for businesses but urged the capital’s residents to follow the rules.
He added: “The worst thing for London’s businesses and our economy would be yet another full lockdown in the new year.”
Badly-affected sectors of the economy hit out at the decision:
– Theatre impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh has said the UK government’s decision to put London into a Tier 3 lockdown is “devastating” and “smacks of panic”.
– Theatre star Elaine Paige, who is part of the cast of Pantoland at the London Palladium, which will be forced to close, said she is “devastated”.
– Kate Nicholls, of trade body UKHospitality, hit out at the move which places an “unfair, illogical and disproportionate burden on hospitality businesses without effectively tackling Covid”.
– The British Beer & Pub Association said 1,250 pubs in London which had remained open in Tier 2 would be forced to close.
Tier 3 is another nail in the coffin for London’s pubs.
1,250 pubs who remained open in London in tier 2 will close.
Pubs are amongst the lowest places for transmission. Yet they close whilst shops and shopping centres stay open.https://t.co/AOZ720QChX— British Beer & Pub Association (@beerandpub) December 14, 2020
Mr Hancock also faced criticism from Tories over the move.
Former chief whip Mark Harper, leader of the Covid Recovery Group of lockdown-sceptics, said: “I’m afraid that London and other parts of the South East moving into Tier 3 shortly shows that the current strategy to combat Covid isn’t working.”
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said hospitality venues had worked to control the virus, urging Mr Hancock to “seek some kind of flexibility within this so it targets better the real risk and doesn’t just hammer those that have been doing the right thing”.
The worrying rise in cases came as GP surgeries in England began vaccinating people against coronavirus and Mr Hancock urged people not to “waver as we enter the final stretch” of the fight against Covid-19.
GP practices in more than 100 locations were administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with the over-80s among those called up to receive the jab.
Care home residents in Scotland began to receive the Pfizer vaccine on Monday, while those in England’s care homes can expect to see roving teams administer the jab from later this week.
Dr Nikita Kanani, director of primary care at NHS England, urged all those expecting to receive the vaccine to be patient and wait to be called up by their GP.
“There’s a huge range of things that general practices are already doing so if we can ask for people to just wait a moment and wait to be contacted that would be very appreciated,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The vaccination centres will operate from doctors’ surgeries or community hubs in villages, towns and cities, and come after more than 70 UK hospital hubs began administering jabs.
