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17 December 2020, 12:26 | Updated: 17 December 2020, 12:31
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced that a number of areas will move up to Tier 3 from this Saturday.
Areas including Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire will all move into Tier 3 this week, the government announced today.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Matt Hancock said that the moves in the East and South East of England were in response to an increase in coronavirus cases in the areas.
The new restrictions will come into place at one past midnight on Saturday 19 December.
See below for a full list of areas moving into Tier 3 this weekend:
Bedfordshire
Buckinghamshire
Berkshire
Peterborough
The whole of Hertfordshire
Surrey, with the exception of Waverley
Hastings and Rother on the Kent border of East Sussex
Portsmouth, Gosport and Havant in Hampshire.
There will also be a number of other moves between Tiers - with Bristol and North Somerset, which were in Tier 3, being downgraded to Tier 2.
In addition, Herefordshire will move down to Tier 1, joining the Isle of Wight, Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly.
Before he made the announcement, Matt Hancock said: "As we enter the coldest months we must be vigilant and keep this virus under control.
"Yesterday 25,161 cases were reported and there are 18,038 people in hospital with coronavirus in the UK. We must keep supressing this virus.
"And this isn’t just a matter for government or for this House, it is a matter for every single person and these are always the most difficult months for people’s health and for the NHS.
"And especially with the vaccine already here, we must be cautious as we accelerate the vaccine deployment as per the winter plan.
"We’ve come so far, we mustn’t blow it now."
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