Now, Tier 4

Yesterday’s government announcement that Kent, along with London and much of the south east, was due to enter (from midnight last night) a new Tier 4 level of restrictions is a severe blow to the county and its residents just days before Christmas. The County Council will do everything we can to help and support our residents and businesses through this. Our statement is here.

The Tier 4 restrictions reimpose many of the features of the November national restrictions, with a requirement on residents to avoid unnecessary travel and to work from home if at all possible, while ‘non-essential’ retail, leisure centres, personal care facilities (such as hairdressers, nail salons etc) are required to close. This comes on top of the restrictions on the hospitality sector already in place. You can find the details of the restrictions here.

Painfully for many families, Tier 4 status also means that ‘Christmas bubbles’, enabling different households to come together for Christmas, no longer apply. Support bubbles for isolated individuals still do apply, however. 

After the statement from the Prime Minister, I joined a call (along with other local government leaders and chief executives) joined a call with the Communities Secretary, Robert Jenrick, and one of the government’s medical advisers. It was clear from this, as from the earlier press conference, that the new, fast-spreading strain of the virus played a central part in these new decisions. The stubbornly high (and then accelerating again) infection rates in Kent and Medway even amid national and then Tier 3 restrictions resulted in investigations that brought focused attention on the new strain and on its rapid spread throughout the South East. A number of areas in London and Essex now have higher infection rates than the levels seen in Swale, the Kent Borough with the highest rates.

The scientific advice is very clear, and the pressures on hospitals in Kent and Medway are severe: all Kent’s hospital trusts are at or (in most cases) well above the level of Covid admissions seen at the previous peak in April. So the decision is hard to argue with, even if its suddenness and timing is abrupt and even brutal. 

As set out in my previous post, we will continue to focus our efforts on local contact tracing, asymptomatic testing and constantly renewing our approach to communications and enforcement. We will also seek to support residents and businesses through this, and press government to review business support to better assist enterprises and individuals across Kent, with our network of very small firms and self-employment.