County to come out of Tier 3 – for now
REGIONAL VARIATIONS MAY BE BACK IN DECEMBER
ALL Tier 3 restrictions imposed on Nottinghamshire will be superseded by the new national lockdown rules.
A government spokesman confirmed to the Post all local restrictions will cease to apply from Thursday.
This means the 9pm alcohol ban, imposed on the county to try and combat house parties, will no longer be in effect.
The measure will have been in place for just six days, as will the county’s stay in Tier 3 - but it may be reintroduced after December 2 when the UK is scheduled to leave the “Tier 4” lockdown.
The government will consider regional lockdown tiers at that point based on trends and the latest data.
In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the regional tiers approach, but said that “further action” was needed to bring the virus back under control.
“I believe passionately that the local and regional approach was the right thing to do,” he said.
“Our hope was that by strong local leadership we could get infection rates down.
“But the virus is doubling faster than we can conceivably add capacity in NHS hospitals, so further action must be taken.”
He said that these restrictions would end on December 2, but that the UK would then return to the tier system.
The Prime Minister said: “We’ll seek to ease restrictions, going back into the tiered system on a local and regional basis according to the latest data and trends.
“We will be looking very carefully over the next four weeks at the tiered areas and deciding which tier will be most appropriate for each region at the end of this period.
“We’re going to be rolling out mass testing and it works so well when you have local support and everybody involved.
“When you have a situation in which a very large country has big disparities, it’s logical to not treat the whole country the same.
“Local leadership and initiatives did make progress, but we have seen cases rising too much.”