AREAS teetering on the brink of being plunged into Tier 3 lockdowns over Christmas and New Year are fighting “an all-out war” to save jobs and businesses.
London is among them, along with Essex, Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, Gloucestershire plus Wiltshire and Swindon.
Areas teetering on the brink of being plunged into tier 3 lockdowns over Christmas and New Year are fighting to save jobs and businesses
London Mayor Sadiq Khan is drafting in more cops and Covid marshals to police the streets as London fast becomes the UK’s Covid capital
Any changes will be announced on Wednesday and remain in place for at least two weeks. Bars and restaurants would be closed until December 30 — with the clampdown unlikely to be lifted for New Year’s Eve.
Last night, as Tory MPs begged Boris Johnson for mercy, Covid expert Prof Tim Spector said: “Currently we have no data that suggests the NHS in England is at risk of being overwhelmed.
“Before increasing restrictions I believe a full cost-benefit evaluation should be made, that accounts for other factors such as mental health, the economy and employment.
“In all the key regions, the dashboard is either trending down or staying the same, so things aren’t getting worse.”
Data from the Zoe UK Infection Survey also showed that daily new Covid cases are falling nationwide.
Meanwhile, London has overtaken cities in the North to become England’s coronavirus capital.
Government insiders warned the situation is “fragile” amid rocketing infection rates among teenagers.
In response, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is drafting in more cops and Covid marshals to police the streets.
Many thousands of extra tests will be sent to the capital within days. And more than 100,000 testing kits are being “surged” to schools in London’s worst-hit hotspots as well as neighbouring Kent and Essex.
Mr Khan said: “Tier 3 restrictions would be catastrophic for our pubs, bars, restaurants and culture venues.
“But with cases rising we are now at a tipping point, which is why we all have a responsibility to do everything we can to get on top of the virus.”
Crowds of shoppers are seen on London’s Regent Street on December 6, but Christmas could be devastated if the fragile capital plunges into Tier 3 restrictions
Falling into Tier 3 will have a devastating impact on jobs and businesses if restrictions are applied over the Christmas and New Year period
With shops staying open, a pre-New Year move to Tier 3 could see huge crowds of bored Brits flocking to sales just for something to do.
London is the only English region where infections are not falling, with the R rate estimated to average around 1. But cases vary greatly from borough to borough with, for instance, six times more in Enfield than in Kingston upon Thames.
Rates have been soaring in seven boroughs in the east — Barking and Dagenham, Hackney and the City, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.
And Downing Street is under increasing pressure to hive off only these areas into Tier 3, leaving the rest of the city in Tier 2.
Tory MP Bob Blackman warned it would be “a disaster” if the whole capital was ordered into Tier 3.
He said: “The hospitality industry is already on its knees and this would finish it off for good. It would risk huge unemployment, particularly among young people.”
Prof Spector said: “In London the cases are possibly starting to rise again, but I would be very cautious about plunging all 9million people into further restrictions, with such big differences across the capital.”
Government insiders fear a rate surge among schoolkids will quickly spread to grannies and grandads when families mix at Christmas.
And cops blasted “selfish” ravers throwing parties while others are dying. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist, the Met’s Covid chief, said: “It is really saddening that in the week a vaccine finally began its rollout to the most vulnerable we are facing the possibility of tougher restrictions.
He warned that if people do not change their behaviour now “then people will die who could have otherwise lived — it’s that simple”. And he added: “We will not allow the irresponsible and selfish actions of a few jeopardise the safety of the entire city.”
The Government said it was too early to say what areas will change tiers.
Tory MPs begged Boris Johnson for mercy, as Covid expert Prof Tim Spector said: Currently we have no data that suggests the NHS in England is at risk of being overwhelmed’
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist, the Met’s Covid chief, said: ‘It is really saddening that in the week a vaccine finally began its rollout to the most vulnerable we are facing the possibility of tougher restrictions’
At-risk areas are deploying additional cops and Covid marshalls as they battle to escape the plunge into tier 3 restrictions
