Heywood and Middleton MP, Chris Clarkson has welcomed today's news for the Prime Minister that Greater Manchester will be placed into tier two of the new covid measures.
Speaking following today's announcement Chris said: "This is the right decision and one which I have been working in conjunction with other Conservative MPs across the Greater Manchester region to secure. I know that this will be a huge relief for many local business owners, especially in hospitality venues. I have heard a lot of speculation from people in the past few days who have been scaremongering about the degree to which this area would be impacted. I am glad that we have been able to take a sensible approach and one which will strike the right balance between protecting the public and the NHS whilst keeping education and business open."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "I do not believe that a full lockdown is the right course of action. We must protect the NHS and not taking action would put the health service under pressure from an uncontrolled virus that they would not be able to deal with. We need to control the virus by changing our behaviour. I take no pleasure whatsoever in imposing these restrictions or stopping people from enjoying themselves, but we must take action. Our actions are saving lives, but we need to go further. In recent months we have worked with local leaders to control local spikes but this has lead to local measures which have become confusing so today we are introducing a new three-tier system to simplify restrictions."
The new measures include tiers set at medium, high and very high but The Greater Manchester region will be set at tier two (High). New measures will take effect from Wednesday and will include:
- No mixing between different households and indoors
- Existing arrangement for support bubbles have not changed
- Rule of six will apply in private gardens and outdoors
Thanks to the intervention of local MPs the region has avoided the tier three restriction which would include
- No social mixing indoors or outdoors
- Closure of pubs and bars
- Extra support for testing and trace
- More support for enforcement
- More support for the job retention scheme
Members of the public will be able to confirm which tier they are in by completing a simple postcode search on gov.uk website.
There will also be specific updated guidance for those who are clinically vulnerable.
Retail, schools, colleges and universities will remain open.
For most information please visit www.gov.uk
