Covid tier 4 rules in England: latest restrictions explained

People in tier 4 areas must stay at home over Christmas and not meet up with other households

Large areas of England are to join London, the south-east and east of England in tier 4, amid a surge in Covid-19 cases and alarm about a new strain of coronavirus spreading rapidly. The new areas include Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, the parts of Essex that were not already in tier 4, Waverley in Surrey, and Hampshire excluding the New Forest. It means another 6 million people will be in the tier, bringing the total to 24 million, or 43% of the population.