Tougher coronavirus restrictions will come into force for millions more people across the UK over the next 24 hours.
Greater Manchester’s 2.8 million residents joined those in Liverpool and Lancashire under England’s highest tier of controls at midnight, while just over three million people in Wales will go into a two-week ‘firebreak’ lockdown at 6pm on Friday.
South Yorkshire will follow on Saturday and talks continue between Westminster and civic leaders in Nottingham and Warrington over possible tier three restrictions. Coventry, Stoke and Slough will all move into tier two.
Under tier three measures in Greater Manchester, pubs and bars will be closed, unless they are serving substantial meals, for a 28-day period, along with casinos, bingo halls and bookies.
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Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced an emergency multi-billion pound bailout on Thursday aimed at supporting workers and firms through the second coronavirus wave.
The Job Support Scheme, which replaces the current furlough system from November 1, will be made more generous in an effort to persuade firms to keep staff in work.
There will also be grants of up to £2,100 a month available for firms in tier two areas of England, aimed at helping hospitality and leisure venues which have seen takings plummet due to restrictions on households mixing.
The package could cost the Exchequer around £13 billion over six months.
It came as the Prime Minister acknowledged that the test and trace system, which he previously promised would be ‘world beating’, needed to be improved.
He said turnaround times for tests needed to be faster, after it emerged that just one in seven people having a test at a centre get their result back in 24 hours.
The Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance also said problems with the system could be ‘diminishing the effectiveness’ and there was ‘room for improvement’.
A total of 101,494 people tested positive for Covid-19 in England at least once in the week to October 14, according to the latest Test and Trace figures.
That is the highest weekly figure since the system was launched in late May.
But just 59.6% of close contacts of people who tested positive were reached through the Test and Trace system, its worst performance yet.
The Government said a further 189 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, as of Thursday in the UK, while 21,242 lab-confirmed positive cases were recorded.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/23/nearly-6000000-begin-toughest-lockdowns-in-england-and-wales-13467586/