Breaking: Oxfordshire to be moved into Tier 4 due to continued rise in Covid-19 cases

Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health, made the announcement this afternoon (Wednesday December 23) of the tougher Tier 4 lockdown measures being extended to Oxfordshire from Boxing Day.

The stricter measures have become necessary to contain the spread of a mutated strain of coronavirus, which is said to be 70 per cent more infectious than previous mutations.

The announcement this afternoon came after the Cabinet’s Covid operations committee will met earlier today (23 December) to consider the latest data on the spread of the virus, after the UK recorded its highest daily increase in cases.

The move into Tier 4 starts at 12.01am on Boxing Day.

The announcement for the escalation to a higher tier included the following areas: Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, those parts in Essex not already in tier four, Waverley in Surrey, and Hampshire - including Portsmouth and Southampton but with the exception of the New Forest.

Tier 4 looks similar to the England-wide lockdown rules of November.

Non-essential shops, gyms, cinemas, hairdressers and bowling alleys will be forced to close for two weeks.

People will be restricted to meeting one other person from another household in an outdoor public space.

Under the new “stay at home” order, people in Tier 4 will be told they should not stay away from home overnight

People should not to travel into a Tier four area, though support bubbles will remain unaffected as do the exemptions for separated parents and their children.