How long will tier 4 last?

As coronavirus case numbers continue to rise in England, and data released on 30 December showed over 900 deaths in a day, the government announced it is placing yet more areas of England into tier 4 restrictions from 00.01 on 31 December.

This, plus other regions being moved from tier 2 to tier 3, means that there are no longer any regions in tier 2 and only the Isles of Scilly remain in tier 1.

For those being moved into stricter measures, they will be keen to know when the rules might be relaxed again.

When are the tier 4 restrictions supposed to end?

A review of the lockdown measures is scheduled to happen every two weeks.

So the soonest your tier might change is on a fortnightly basis.

Will the restrictions last longer than the initial two weeks?

According to the health secretary, the tier 4 restrictions could be in place for “the next couple of months”, because the new Covid-19 variant has made keeping cases under control “very difficult”.

“We’ve got to get this under control and the cases in tier 4 areas have absolutely rocketed in the last two weeks or so,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme. “We’ve got to get that vaccine rolled out to keep people safe.”

Mr Hancock also acknowledged that it would be difficult to keep the new variant under control without a rollout of the vaccine, explaining that the restrictions could be in place for “some time, until we can get the vaccine going".

What does tier 4 mean?

Those living in tier 4 areas have been placed under a “stay at home” order, with exceptions limited only to travel for work, education, childcare, essential shopping, exercise, medical appointments or to visit others in your support bubble.

Under the restrictions, the majority of non-essential businesses have been forced to close, with the rules similar to those of previous nationwide lockdowns.