The announcement means that 34.3 million people, equivalent to 52 percent of the overall population, will be living in Tier 4 from Boxing Day.
Tier 3 will include 24.7 million, or 37 percent of the UK’s population, while 7.4 million, or 11 percent are living in Tier 2 and just the 2,224 people inhabiting the Isles of Scilly in Tier 1, making up just 0.0033 percent of the population.
Dr Jenny Harries, one of England’s deputy chief medical officers, said the tier change was aimed at “encouraging and tightening our own behaviours” in areas where people tend to “stray off course a little bit”.
If regions don’t come under control and need to be moved to a higher Tier again, Mr Hancock he wouldn’t hesitate to “act incredibly fast”.
