Health Secretary Matt Hancock today announced that more parts of the UK will be entering Tier 4 and Tier 3 lockdowns. This news arrives after another variant of the COVID-19 virus landing on UK shores.

Hancock said there are two cases of another new variant in the UK. Both are contacts of cases who have travelled from South Africa.

Hancock also claimed that Tier 3 would not be enough to control the new variant and as such on Boxing Day areas including Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire will be escalated to Tier 4. 

This news comes just a day after France eased its travel ban on the UK, with French citizens, British nationals living in France and hauliers allowed in as long as they test negative for Covid-19.