COVID-19: UK may impose tier 4 restrictions in more areas

More areas of England may be put under the toughest coronavirus restrictions in order to curb the spread of a new variant of COVID-19, BBC reported on Wednesday.

According to report, ministers are discussing whether to impose even stricter measure to contain the spread or continue with the ongoing tier four measure.

Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said No 10 would make a judgement on whether the current rules were strong enough.

He said that there was no immediate plan to impose restrictions in other areas as well on Boxing Day but "the number of cases is rising".

Meanwhile The UK's chief scientific adviser has said extra curbs could be needed.

Sir Patrick Vallance said that measures could "need to be increased in some places, in due course, not reduced".

The ongoing tier four restrictions – which were placed in London and large parts of south-east England – were due to be reviewed on 30 December.

Jenrick said the new variant - which could be up to 70 percent more transmissible than previous strains - was now present in other areas of the country, albeit to a "lesser extent" than in London, south-east and the east of England.

On Tuesday, 36,804 people in the UK were tested positive for the virus and there were 691 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to government figures.

It is the largest daily number of cases recorded yet, though it is thought the infection rate was higher during the first peak in spring when testing was much more limited.