Monday 23 November and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that England’s lockdown will end on 02 December, to be replaced by tougher 3-tier regional measures that will be in place until 04 April 2021.
The allocation of tiers will be dependent on a number of factors, including each area’s case numbers, the reproduction rate – or R number – and the current and projected local NHS capacity, and it will be reviewed every 14 days.
He added that many areas are expected to be in higher tiers than they were prior to the lockdown. An announcement on which areas will be placed in which tier is due to be made on Thursday.
In summary, the new tiered measures are as follows:
In all tiers, exceptions will apply for support bubbles.
For more information on The Covid Winter Plan, click here.
Thursday 26 November and Oxfordshire will exit the lockdown into Tier 2: High alert. This is for areas with a higher or rapidly rising level of infections, where some additional restrictions need to be in place. What this means is that we’ll see a reopening of many of our cherished and struggling venues, as well as gyms, non-essential shops and personal care i.e. barbers and hairdressers. We’ll also see a fair bit of festive socialising around Christmas. It will be reviewed every 14 days.
In more detail, the local restriction tier system that will be in place from Wednesday 02 December are as follows:
Based on the government announcement, it appears an awful lot of the country, including London and neighbouring Buckinghamshire, is in Tier 2.
You may recall that before lockdown 2.0, Oxford was placed into Tier 2 while the rest of the Oxfordshire county was in Tier 1.
The government set out the criteria in the COVID winter plan. There are five indicators.
Additionally, when setting the boundaries for the tiers, the government has now taken into account not only the geographical areas but also the human geographies that influence how the virus spreads such as travel patterns and the epidemiological situation in neighbouring regions.
It is worth mentioning that all three tiers are less stringent than the current lockdown scheduled to end on 02 December.
Thursday 26 November and following the announcement that Oxford is exiting lockdown into Tier 2 from Wednesday 2 December, Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of Oxford City Council said: “I want to thank everyone in Oxford for sticking to the lockdown rules and helping bring the infection rate down in the city.
“This has been a whole community effort and the way you all have responded – businesses, residents and students – means Oxford’s case numbers started to come down last week. This is great news, but we are not out of the woods yet and we will all need to continue to take precautions to make sure the decrease in cases in the city continues.
“We are exiting into Tier 2, which means we can enjoy a bit more normality and social life, and it will give a welcome boost to our local businesses. Please do enjoy the run up to Christmas by using local shops and hospitality safely, but remember, the rule of six only applies outside and indoors you must stay in your household or bubble. Continue to take sensible precautions and don’t break the rules. What we each do now will make a real difference to keeping safe over the Christmas break.”
Tuesday 24 November: Up to three households will be able to meet up during a five-day Christmas period from 23 to 27 December. People can mix indoors in homes, places of worship and outdoor spaces, and travel restrictions will also be eased. But existing rules on hospitality and venues will remain and the “Christmas bubble” formed must be “exclusive”. The measures will see travel restrictions across the four nations, and between tiers, lifted to allow people to visit families in other parts of the UK.
Tuesday 24 November, and both Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford will be offering students free and fast COVID-19 tests so that they can travel home safely this Christmas and prevent the further spread of the coronavirus to friends, families and the community. Read more about that here.
On 11 November the government set out guidance for university students to travel home at the end of the term. Students from both Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University would be asked to go home for Christmas, during a “student travel window” between 03 and 09 December, to minimise the risk of them spreading Covid-19.
No plans have been announced yet for what will happen in January, that is either for students to return to university safely, or whether they may have to study online from home.
28 November 2020 and the Government has announced the appointment of Nadhim Zahawi as a new health minister to oversee the rollout of the Covid vaccine in England which is expected to begin before Christmas, subject to regulatory approval.
Mr Zahawi, who is MP for Stratford-on-Avon, will oversee the distribution of the vaccine until at least next summer. And under the interim arrangement, Mr Zahawi will serve as a joint minister between the health department and the business department, where he currently works.
It is worth mentioning that as of today, the UK government has placed orders for 100 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, 40 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech and five million doses from US firm Moderna.
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This is a rolling story and it will be updated with any significant developments.