England’s three-tier coronavirus system will need to be ‘strengthened’ for winter

A sign advising customers about the spread of coronavirus outside a shop in Stirling
PA
April Roach @aprilroach2816 November 2020

England’s three-tier system of coronavirus restrictions will need to be “strengthened” to get the country through the winter months, a Public Health England adviser has warned.

Boris Johnson unveiled the tiered system of Covid-19 rules last month in a bid to simplify lockdown measures in England. 

The system saw areas put into different categories labelled medium, high or very high risk, with the medium level also referred to as Tier 1, high as Tier 2 and very high as Tier 3.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a Downing Street press conference on Monday that the Government hopes the national lockdown will be replaced on December 2 with a tiered system “similar to what we had before”.

But Dr Susan Hopkins, an epidemiologist, said Tier 1 coronavirus restrictions had “little effect”, while the impact of Tier 2 varied in different places.

“We have recognised that the tiering of the country has had a different effect in each area," said Dr Hopkins, a PHE director advising the Government’s coronavirus response.

“Tier 3, and especially Tier 3 plus in the North, has had an effect in reducing the numbers of cases in the North West and we can see the North West’s declining number of cases now.

Dr Susan Hopkins said the tiered system may need to be strengthened
PA

“Tier 2 seems to hold in some areas and not so well in others, and so really it depends on how fast transmission is occurring and how well the individuals in the population are taking that advice in.

“We see very little effect from Tier 1 and I think when we look at what tiers may be there in the future, we will have to think about strengthening them in order to get us through the winter months until the vaccine is available for everyone.”

Mr Hancock has said it is too early to know the impact of the second lockdown in England on coronavirus cases, but he hopes measures can be eased on December 2.

He told the press conference: “It is too early for us to know what the number of cases will be as we come to the end of the current lockdown.

“At the moment, most of the tests we’re getting back, and most of the positive cases, are from around the time the lockdown came in, so we are yet to see in the data – and it’s too early to expect to see in the data – the impact of the second lockdown.

“But we absolutely hope to be able to replace the national lockdown with a tiered system similar to what we had before.”

At a briefing on Monday, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “We are committed to setting out next week what the replacement regime will be and that will be a return to the localised approach and we’re actively working on those plans at the moment.”

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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