Matt Hancock BANS households in parts of Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire from meeting indoors

New lockdown for the north: Matt Hancock BANS households in parts of Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire from meeting indoors from TONIGHT after repeated rule breaches led to spike in new Covid cases

  • Councils going back into partial lockdown are Burnley, Hyndburn and Pendle
  • Mr Hancock said it is ‘with a heavy heart’ that the measures were put in place
  • He said ‘a lack of social distancing’ is part of the reason coronavirus cases rose

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has banned households in parts of Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire from meeting indoors from midnight tonight.

He claimed the new lockdown measures were put in force after repeated rule breaches led to spike in new coronavirus cases.

The councils going back into a partial lockdown are Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has banned households in parts of Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire from meeting indoors from tonight

Mr Hancock told Sky News: ‘We’re looking at the data and unfortunately we’ve seen across parts of northern England an increase in the number of cases of coronavirus.

‘So today I held a meeting of the Government’s Gold Committee and working with local leaders – including for instance Andy Burnham, the mayor Greater Manchester –  we’ve decided that we need to take greater action across Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire.

‘So from midnight tonight, we are banning households meeting up indoors. 

‘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 will do whatever is necessary to keep the country safe.’

He added: ‘Across parts of northern England we’ve seen an increase in the rates of coronavirus and one of the reasons for that increase is that we’ve seen households gathering and not abiding by the social distancing rules.

‘And that means that we’ve had to take the decision to ban households meeting together indoors.’ 

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