Covid: Majority of Midlands move into Tier 4

Tier 4
Tier 4 restrictions have been in place in large swathes of the South and South East since a new variant of the virus has been discovered earlier this month. Credit: PA

All areas of the Midlands will be placed under the toughest coronavirus restrictions from today, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced.

Most major cities including Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham and Leicester will be put into Tier 4, while others will move into Tier 3.

Which tier am I in?

Tier 4 areas:

  • Leicester

  • Oadby and Wigston

  • Harborough

  • Hinckley and Bosworth

  • Blaby

  • Charnwood

  • North West Leicestershire

  • Melton

  • Lincoln

  • Boston

  • South Kesteven

  • West Lindsey

  • North Kesteven

  • South Holland

  • East Lindsey

  • Corby

  • Daventry

  • East Northamptonshire

  • Kettering

  • Northampton

  • South Northamptonshire

  • Wellingborough

  • Derby

  • Amber Valley

  • South Derbyshire

  • Bolsover

  • North East Derbyshire

  • Chesterfield

  • Erewash

  • Derbyshire Dales

  • High Peak

  • Nottingham

  • Gedling

  • Ashfield

  • Mansfield

  • Rushcliffe

  • Bassetlaw

  • Newark

  • Sherwood

  • Nottinghamshire

  • Broxtowe

  • Birmingham

  • Dudley

  • Sandwell

  • Walsall

  • Wolverhampton

  • Coventry 

  • Solihull 

  • Rugby

  • Nuneaton

  • Bedworth

  • Warwick

  • North Warwickshire

  • Stratford-upon-Avon

  • East Staffordshire

  • Stafford

  • South Staffordshire

  • Cannock Chase

  • Lichfield

  • Staffordshire Moorlands

  • Newcastle under Lyme

  • Tamworth

  • Stoke-on-Trent

  • Gloucester

  • Forest of Dean

  • Cotswolds

  • Tewkesbury

  • Stroud

  • Cheltenham

Tier 3 areas:

  • Rutland 

  • Shropshire

  • Telford & Wrekin 

  • Bromsgrove

  • Malvern Hills

  • Redditch

  • Worcester

  • Wychavon

  • Wyre Forest

  • Herefordshire 

  • Cheltenham

Cases have been rising across the Midlands ever since the discovery of a new variant of the virus in the South East of England.

Addressing MPs in the Commons, Mr Hancock said: "The NHS is under very significant pressure... and we can see the impact this is happening, the threat to life is real."He added: "The new variant means that three quarters of the population are now going to be in Tier 4 and almost all of the country in Tiers 3 and 4."

The Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the tightest restrictions in the House of Commons today. Credit: PA

The new restrictions come as the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, the country's medicine regulator has announced.

The UK has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine, enough to vaccinate 50 million people.

Mr Hancock implied the UK could vaccinate up to two million people a week, beginning on January 4, as he said the country could deliver the jab "at the pace AstraZeneca can manufacture".

The firm said it would produce two million doses a week.

Professor Wei Shen Lim from Nottingham University Hospitals says today's approval of the Oxford Vaccine is "good news for all of us."

What do Tier 4 restrictions mean?

  • People are advised not to enter Tier 4 areas and residents in tier must not stay overnight away from home

  • Travelling abroad is banned

  • You should work from home. Where you cannot, you are still able to travel to work

  • Non-essential shops will be shut

  • Indoor leisure such as gyms and swimming pools will be shut

  • Indoor entertainment such as cinemas and bowling alleys will be shut

  • Beauty services, such as hairdressers and nail bars will be shut

  • One person can meet with one person from another household outdoors for exercise.

Rutland was the only place in the East Midlands that was in Tier 2 before today, but now moves to Tier 3.

It's the only area in the East Midlands to not be in Tier 4.

Our reporter Rajiv Popat spent the day there and got reaction from local people and businesses:

Reactions to these new Tiers are coming in from politicians as well as NHS bosses.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street backs the new measures and hopes they will bring down case levels as they have done in previous lockdowns.

The CEO of the largest NHS trust in the West Midlands has also said it will run out of beds in two weeks, if COVID-19 cases continue to rise.

David Rosser, CEO of University Hospitals Birmingham where the Queen Elizabeth hospital is based, wants all of Midlanders to follow these Tier 4 rules.

Paul Jennings, another NHS boss from the Midlands, also wants those in Tier 4 to adhere to the rules for the next few months. But he hopes that we'll be in a "different world" in 12 weeks time with the vaccination programme accelerating.

The Public Health Consultant for Nottinghamshire County Council, Dawn Jenkin, is also not surprised with the decision to move their areas into Tier 4. She believes Tier 3 measures are not being "sufficient to suppress the virus."

In Wolverhampton, which has the highest coronavirus case rate in the West Midlands at the moment, moving in Tier 4 was no surprise to Ian Brookfield, its council leader.

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