New tiered system comes into force today – and

A NEW local lockdown system comes into force across the country today which will see areas in England split into one of three risk categories.

Very high, high and medium labels will be dished out, determining what level of restrictions are placed on people living in different areas.

Leicester has been given tier 2 (or high alert) status, but Leicestershire is split due to differing rates across the county.

While the criteria for what puts areas in different levels hasn’t been shared by the government, the number of cases, seven-day rates and the ages of those with the virus are all understood to be factors.

Here’s the key stats and what tier your area you live in will be...

BLABY

Alert level: Medium

Latest seven-day rate: 117.5 per 100,000 population

The district was placed on the government’s watchlist last month after a sharp rise in cases, but since then it has dropped off the cause for concern radar.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,048 cases. More recently, numbers have been rising in the younger age brackets. Part of the district was included in the red line when the Leicester lockdown was announced at the end of June.

CHARNWOOD

Alert level: Medium

Latest seven-day rate: 154.4 per 100,000 population

An area starting to get some attention given a sharp increase in cases.

The borough’s University Medium Super Output Area (areas with an average population of 7,000 used by health bosses to track cases at a local level) has recently started to feature in hotpot lists.

No extra measures have been required in the area to date, where there have so far been 1,788 cases.