World

Home visits banned in parts of northern England

July 31, 2020 1:34 pm

Health Secretary Matt Hancock: "We take this action with a heavy heart". [Source: BBC]

Separate households will not be able to meet indoors from Friday in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire.

The health secretary said the areas had seen an “increasing rate of transmission”, “largely due” to people not following social distancing.

Labour criticised the government for a lack of clarity over the measures and for announcing them “late at night”.

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More than four million people will be affected by the tightening of restrictions.

The new measures mean different households will not be allowed to meet in homes or private gardens, but individual households will still be able to go to pubs and restaurants.

The Country’s Health Secretary said the same restrictions would apply in Leicester, where a local lockdown has been in place for the last month.

However, pubs, restaurants and some other facilities will be allowed to reopen in the city from Monday, as some of the stricter measures are lifted.