Nottinghamshire will join Warrington, the Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Yorkshire in the highest tier
It is understood that the whole of Nottinghamshire will be going into Tier 3 COVID-19 lockdown restrictions from Friday.
Nottingham City, Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe had already been preparing to go into Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions from midnight tonight.
Instead, the entire county of Nottinghamshire will now be going into the strictest form of lockdown restrictions together on Friday, starting at 12.01am. Details will be announced in full later this afternoon.
George Eustice has recently said that it is “too early to say” how people will be able to celebrate Christmas this year, with strict COVID-19 rules in place across large parts of the UK. On Tuesday, COVID-19 deaths in the UK hit their highest level for five months when 367 new fatalities linked to the novel coronavirus and nearly 23,000 more cases were recorded.
this means that the remaining areas of Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, will now be under the same Tier 3 COVID-19 restrictions.
Talks between the UK government and local leaders are said to have been finished, but negotiations are still ongoing as to what the exact measures within the county will be. Although these will be staying in place for at least 28 days.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday evening, Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood said the full announcement of COVID-19 restrictions in the city had been delayed because ministers wanted to extend the restrictions further afield.
She said:
“Yesterday we were told that we’re going into Tier 3 on Thursday.”
“Now we hear the announcement has been delayed because ministers want to extend Tier 3 to all of Nottinghamshire – as I and others have been saying for days.”
“Once again this government are dithering and delaying – and our constituents, our hospitals and local businesses in our city are paying the price.”
This comes after Dr Tristan Cope, the medical director at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal, Aintree and Broadgreen hospitals, said a “huge strain” had been placed on hospital staff in Liverpool and added that numbers were still rising.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust medical director Keith Girling said they had taken the “extremely difficult decision” to postpone four cancer operations this week.
Five days earlier the Trust said they would be postponing some appointments until 6 November thanks to a spike in coronavirus cases.
CEO Tracy Taylor said it had been a “difficult decision”, but added there were more than 200 patients with COVID-19 in hospital in the city – and “everyday this is increasing by nearly another full ward of people”.
Warrington entered Tier 3 on Tuesday with all pubs and bars closing – unless they serve substantial meals – along with betting shops, adult gaming centres, casinos, and soft play centres.
