Over 20 million people live in Tier 3 areas

THE Tier 3, or Very High alert, areas are home to over 20 million people.

The whole of the North East is included – that is Newcastle, North Tyneside, Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside, County Durham and Northumberland.

Also included are the five Teesside local authorities – Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar and Cleveland, and Darlington.

Further afield, Greater Manchester is included in Tier 3, as is Lancashire, Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Birmingham and Black Country, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull, Derby and Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, Leicester and Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.

All are in the North and Midlands. But Slough, Kent and

Medway, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset are also in Tier 3.

Most of the rest of the country will drop into Tier 2. This includes all 32 London council areas. It also included the Liverpool City Region, which has won praise for bringing down its virus figures.

Only three areas in the whole of England drop into the mildest Tier 1 restriction areas – the Isle of Wight, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.