Nottingham and Warrington become latest areas to enter Tier 3

Hundreds of thousands more people will be placed under the most stringent coronavirus restrictions as a deal to put Nottingham and some surrounding boroughs into Tier 3 was struck with the Government.

The tougher rules for Nottingham, Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe council areas will come into force on Thursday, with details of the measures expected to be outlined on Tuesday.

It comes just hours after it was confirmed that Warrington will enter Tier 3 on Tuesday, with pubs and bars in the Cheshire town having to close unless they serve substantial meals.

Households will be banned from mixing indoors or in private gardens and beer gardens, while betting shops, adult gaming centres, casinos and soft play centres will also close as part of the decision to put the town’s 210,000 people into the highest alert level in England.

According to analysis by the PA news agency, in the seven days to October 21 the rate of new cases in Warrington was 377.1 per 100,000 people, with 792 new cases.

This was up from 342.8 the previous week when there were 720 new cases.

Nottingham and Warrington will join the Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Yorkshire – which saw fresh restrictions imposed over the weekend – in Tier 3.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Infection rates are rising in Warrington, and we have agreed with local leaders that it’s time to take action.

“I know that these new measures will mean sacrifices must be made by the people in Warrington, and I want to extend my thanks to each and every one of them for recognising the severity of the situation and sticking to the rules.

“We have agreed a support package designed to help businesses while boosting efforts to control the virus locally, and will not hesitate to take similar action in any area of the country if infection rates continue to rise.

“Please remember – now is the time for us all to work together to get this virus under control.”

In an interview on Monday, Mr Hancock said areas under Tier 3 restrictions would have to prove that their infection rate was “coming down”, especially among those aged 60 or over, before they could be removed from the strictest measures.

He has also refused to rule out bringing in a tougher set of Tier 4 impositions following reports another level is being considered to tackle England’s rise in infections.

Mr Hancock also suggested a vaccine would not provide an escape route from the social restrictions until next year.

He told Today it was his “central expectation” that the mass roll-out of any vaccine would be “in the first half of next year”.

NHS England confirmed on Monday a further 91 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 31,910.

The patients were aged between 44 and 95 and all had known underlying health conditions, with the majority passing on or after October 23.

Ministers confirmed they were looking at reducing the time that people have to quarantine at home from 14 days to between 10 days and a week. But Number 10 insisted no decision had been made yet.

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, told the Today programme it “would certainly increase the risk of transmission” because people infected in the last stage of the incubation period would be “allowed to be back out in public”.

But Cabinet minister Mr Hancock pointed to France as an example of where a similar measure had been introduced and said any changes would be “about the overall clinical judgment” of what was necessary.

Meanwhile, Wales’s Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said he was “saddened” to hear of an incident in which a woman was incorrectly told she could not buy sanitary products at a Tesco store due to the firebreak lockdown.

Tesco has apologised over the error and said an aisle selling sanitary items at one of its stores was temporarily closed due to a break-in.

The Welsh Government is currently reviewing its ban on the sale of non-essential items during the two-week lockdown.