Tier system announced for England after lockdown

Blink and you could miss the transition next week – from lockdown to the tier system. Just 700,000 in England will move back to the lowest tier of Covid alert. More than 40 percent of the population, many in the North and Midlands will be in the highest tier.

Boris Johnson admitted that the new regional restrictions would cause a “great deal of heartache and frustration”.

Latest government figures show that in the last 24 hours there have been another 17,555 new coronavirus cases across the UK and a further 498 people have died, which brings the total to 57,031.