London, 17th September: New restrictions have been imposed in North-east England after the spike in coronavirus cases.
According to reports from the BBC News, almost two million people in north-east England will see more restrictions following a rise in coronavirus cases.
The Northumberland, Newcastle, Sunderland, North and South Tyneside, Gateshead and County Durham council areas will be affected from midnight.
The temporary measures include restrictions on households mixing and pubs closing earlier at night. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there were “concerning rates of infection in the North East.”
He told that the government was taking strict action after concerns were raised by the councils covering the affected areas.
Mr Hancock said that the new restrictions will include restaurants offering table service only, and restaurants, bars and pubs will have to shut between 22:00 BST and 05:00.
The latest measures come as figures showed people using community coronavirus testing centres in England were waiting longer for their results.
Image Courtesy: BBC News
Nick Forbes, the Newcastle City Council leader said that the preventive measures were meant to prevent a damaging full lockdown.
“The evidence we’ve found from local testing is that it’s spreading in three main areas – in pubs, in people’s homes and in grassroots sports,” he said.
“So [council leaders] have put together a series of requests to the government for additional restrictions around these areas for a fixed period of time to try to prevent a damaging full lockdown.”
Matt Hancock concluded, “We agree with the local councils that we must follow the data and act and the data says that we must act now so that we can control the virus and keep people safe.”
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