The Government has u-turned on its Xmas arrangements with the Prime Minister announcing that the bubble rules will apply only on Christmas Day.
Boris Johnson also announced a new Tier 4 covering London,parts of the South East and Eastern England which will see all non essential shops close and restrictions on travel outside of the area
People will be instructed to stay at home in Tier 4 including on Christmas Day. The only mixing between households will be support bubbles for people at risk of loneliness and isolation, or one member of a household meeting with one member of another household outdoors. Non-essential shops, personal care such as hairdressers and entertainment venues such as bowling alleys will all close.
Earlier Prof Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said the UK has informed the World Health Organization that the new coronavirus strain can spread more rapidly.
“As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance,” he said in a statement.
“As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modelling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the south-east, the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group (Nervtag) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly.
“We have alerted the WHO and are continuing to analyse the available data to improve our understanding.
“There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is under way to confirm this. Given this latest development, it is now more vital than ever that the public continue to take action in their area to reduce transmission.”
There are already unsurprisingly rumblings amongst Tory MP’s that these new regulations are being pushed through without the support of Parliament
Mark Harper, chair of the Covid Recovery Group, has demanded a recall of parliament, issuing a statement saying: ‘More immediately, given the three-tier system and the initial Christmas household rules were expressly authorised by the House of Commons, these changes must also be put to a vote in the Commons at the earliest opportunity, even if that means a recall of the House.
