UK announces 3 tier COVID-19 restrictions to fight surge in cases

UK announces 3 tier COVID-19 restrictions to fight surge in cases

London, 13-Oct-2020

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new three tier restriction levels to control the spread of COVID-19 cases across England. The three-tier system of COVID-19 alert levels will categorize the localized lockdowns across England into "medium, high or very high" based on their Coronavirus transmission rate. The very high alert level will apply where transmission rates are rising "most rapidly", with social mixing banned indoors and outdoors and a forced closure of pubs and other hospitality businesses. While most of the areas in England fall into medium alert level, Liverpool City region became the first one to be included in the high alert level. The medium alert level or Tier 1 is the lowest alert level, which will cover most of the country and involve the current national lockdown measures of the "rule of six" on gatherings and hospitality sector shutdowns at 10pm. Tier 2, or the high alert level, will involve restrictions already in place in some local areas with stricter bans on indoor mixing but outdoor mixing allowed within the rule of six numbers. The "very high alert level" or Tier 3, will apply where the state funded National Health Service (NHS) could soon be under "unbearable pressure" without further restrictions. Johnson confirmed that most areas already subject to local restrictions on top of the national rules will automatically move into the "high alert" category or Tier 2. Around 4.4 million people fall into high alert areas that include Manchester, Nottinghamshire, East and West Cheshire.