More areas to enter tier four restrictions in England

More areas of England could be placed under tier four restrictions, following the health secretary's statement due later this afternoon.

Matt Hancock said that Downing St doesn't "take these tiering decisions lightly", but pointed at recent government data which showed a rise in cases in even lower-tiered areas.

Tier four rules already affect nearly 40% of people in England, closing non-essential shops and limiting interactions with other households in these regions.

Areas such as the West Midlands, Leicestershire and Hartlepool could be moved into the highest level of coronavirus regulations.

This comes as Essex declares a major incident due to the sharp rise of COVID-19 cases in the region, as the more infectious, new variant of the virus continues to increase cases in the south-east of the country.

Yesterday, over 53,000 new UK cases were recorded, the highest daily rise since mass testing has been introduced.