Regional Tiers May Be Scrapped In The UK After Lockdown As More Than 20,000 Failed To Isolate

By Tony Winterburn • Published: 03 Feb 2021 • 22:45

Regional Tiers May Be Scrapped In The UK After Lockdown As More Than 20,000 Failed To Isolate.image: Pinterest

Regional Tiers May Be Scrapped In The UK After Lockdown As More Than 20,000 Failed To Isolate.

Boris Johnson has hinted that the regional tier system may be scrapped when national lockdown ends. The Prime Minister told reporters that a national approach to coronavirus restrictions “might be better this time around”. This came after it was revealed that around 20,000 people a day are failing to isolate when ordered to by contact tracers.

Test and Trace chief Baroness Dido Harding told the Commons Science and Technology Committee that “circa 20,000” people were failing to stay at home – and are potentially spreading the virus.

Internal Test and Trace research found just under 60% of people were fully obeying the order to self-isolate, while a recent study from UCL said 80% of people said they hadn’t come into contact with anybody during isolation.

When the last lockdown ended in December 2020, England returned to tiered arrangements which restricted the activities permitted in an area depending on the state of the virus. Ministers had previously suggested England would see a return to regional tiers after the current lockdown came to end.

Mr Johnson said: “If you look at the way the new variant has taken off across the country, it’s a pretty national phenomenon. The charts I see, we’re all sort of moving pretty much in the same sort of way, I mean there are a few discrepancies, a few differences, so it may be that we will go for a national approach but there may be an advantage still in some regional differentiation as well. I’m keeping an open mind on that.”

The Prime Minister has said that the government will set out its ‘road map’ out of lockdown on February 22, following a review of the lockdown on February 15. March 8 has been targeted as the earliest possible date for reopening schools and easing other measures.

Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Regional Tiers May Be Scrapped In The UK After Lockdown As More Than 20,000 Failed To Isolate”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.