Northamptonshire joins the rest of the Anglia region in Covid Tier 4

• Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Matthew Hudson

Northamptonshire is to join the rest of the Anglia region under the toughest coronavirus restrictions from New Year's Eve.

Like Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire will also move from Tier 3 to Tier 4.

It will means all of the Anglia region, apart from Rutland, will be in Tier 4 - under similar lockdown measures to those introduced in November.

Rutland will move from Tier 2 to Tier 3.

Most of the Anglia region has been under Tier 4 restrictions since Boxing Day with non-essential shops and businesses closed along with pubs and restaurants.

Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Milton Keynes, Norfolk and Suffolk will remain in Tier 4.

• Start of new school term delayed because of rising coronavirus cases

• The Covid tiers in the Anglia region and what you can and can't do in each tier

• More of England to move into Tier 4 on New Year's Eve, Matt Hancock announces

The Health Secretary and West Suffolk MP Matt Hancock has announced that more areas will move into Tier 4 in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

He said: "Sharply rising cases and the hospitalisations that follow demonstrate the need to act where the virus is spreading."

Mr Hancock told MPs that the majority of new cases recorded yesterday "are believed to be the new variant".

He added: "Unfortunately, this new variant is now spreading across most of England and cases are doubling fast.

"It is therefore necessary to apply Tier 4 measures to a wider area, including the remaining parts of the South East, as well as large parts of the Midlands, the North West, the North East and the South West."