Tier 4 areas likely to increase as new variant spreads

New strain already in most of country, says Vallance, with festive mixing sure to make the situation worse

TIER 4 restrictions are likely to spread across the country, as the new virus variant moves into new areas, Sir Patrick Vallance has said. The Government’s

Chief Scientific Adviser said cases of Covid were set to increase after “a period of i nevitable mixing” over Christmas, warning that the new variant was already in every part of the country.

Analysis of genomic data shows rates are increasing in the south west, with 27 per cent of cases sampled linked to the new strain, compared with 62 per cent of cases in London, 59 per cent in the East of England, and 43 per cent in the south east.

Health officials said they were now investigating a possible “hot spot” of cases in Cumbria. Yesterday NHS chiefs from the North and Midlands urged anyone who had fled there from Tier 4 areas in recent days to self-isolate for 10 days.

At a No 10 briefing on coronavirus, Sir Patrick signalled that further restrictions could be expected – and suggested it was already too late to stop the new strain reaching most areas.

“The evidence on this virus is it spreads easily, it’s more transmissible, we absolutely need to make sure we have the right level of restrictions in place. I think it is likely that this will grow in numbers of the variant across the country and I think it’s likely, therefore, that measures will need to be increased in some places, in due course, not reduced. I think it is the case that this will spread more.”

“The new variant is spread around the country,” he said. “It’s localised in some places but we know there are cases everywhere, so it’s not as though we can stop this getting into other places, there’s some there already.”

Sir Patrick said he expected to see an increase in cases after Christmas, after a period of “inevitable mixing”. But he urged those in every part of the country to “stay local” and take care not to spread the virus.

At the weekend Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, condemned those who had fled London in packed trains on Saturday as “totally irresponsible”.

Yesterday health chiefs from the North and Midlands urged anyone who had travelled there from Tier 4 areas to isolate for 10 days, and turn away any Christmas Day visitors. The advice came after scenes of people packing railway stations in London hours before Tier 4 controls came into force on Sunday, prompting fears the more infectious new variant could be spread across the country.

Scientists believe that the new variant emerged in Kent, which is why the majority of case have been seen in the south east, London and east of England.

As a result, there is also concern that areas on the borders of Tier 4 are vulnerable to the f urther spread of the virus.