We stay in Tier 3 for now
THREE-QUARTERS OF COUNTRY FACE TIGHTER RESTRICTIONS AS CASES RISE
WEST Yorkshire will remain in Tier 3 for the time being, the government has confirmed.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said rising case numbers had forced the government to move more than three-quarters of the national population into Tier 4.
He added: “Even in most areas not moving into Tier 4 cases are rising too and it is therefore necessary to apply Tier 3 measures more broadly, including in Liverpool and North Yorkshire. The rest of Yorkshire will remain in Tier 3.”
A total of 44 million people will now be in Tier 4 – or 78% of the population of England.
Almost everybody else will be in Tier 3.
The tier changes came into effect at one minute past midnight today.
When West Yorkshire was originally put into Tier 3 at the start of December, it was the highest level of coronavirus restrictions.
But the government soon introduced a new Tier 4 – equivalent to national lockdown rules – for some areas hit particularly hard by a new and more contagious strain of the virus.
Infection rates and hospital admissions have been kept relatively under control in West Yorkshire though, even to the point that Yorkshire hospitals may end up taking some patients from London, where Intensive Care Units are close to being overwhelmed.
Case numbers in West Yorkshire have been creeping up slightly over the past week though and they are likely to rise further when the full impact of the Christmas period is felt.
But they are not too different to when West Yorkshire was originally put into Tier 3, immediately after the second national lockdown.
Only Leeds has a higher infection rate now than it did on the first full day of Tier 3 rules.
The district had a 149.5 rate on December 3, compared to a rate of 181.2 on Christmas Day, which is the latest available date. Infection rates in Bradford, Kirklees, Wakefield and Calderdale have all gone down in the three weeks of Tier 3 rules, between December 3 and Christmas Day.
Mr Hancock said it was a “day of mixed emotions” as the tightening of restrictions across much of England came on the same day the new Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for widespread use in the UK.