From midnight (Friday 31 July), separate households will be banned from meeting indoors in large parts of Northern England.
People from separate households in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire will not be allowed to meet inside each other’s houses or any indoor venue under the new rules.
The new rules represent a tightening of Coronavirus restrictions following news that the UK experienced its highest daily death toll from the COVID-19 Coronavirus for more than a month in the last recorded 24 hours of data.
Making the announcement, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said;
“We take this action with a heavy heart but unfortunately it’s necessary because we’ve seen that households meeting up and a lack of social distancing is one of the causes of this rising rate of coronavirus and we’ll do whatever is necessary to keep the country safe.”
The new rules cover all parts of Greater Manchester and;
- Pendle
- Hyndburn
- Burnley
- Rossendale
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Bradford
- Calderdale and Kirklees
The Government has previously said that future Coronavirus action will be targetted and localised. The new localised restrictions in parts of Northern England follows a stricter but smaller local lockdown in Leicester and some surrounding areas.
