Covid-19: Kent and Medway placed in highest Covid tier

Kent and Medway will face the toughest coronavirus curbs when the national lockdown ends, it has been announced.

The areas will be placed under tier three from 2 December.

Swale and Thanet have the two highest rates of Covid-19 infection in England. Medway has risen to fourth and Gravesham is in the top 20.

There will be a ban on households mixing, except in limited circumstances such as parks, and people will be urged to avoid travel outside their area.

Pubs and restaurants will only be able to offer delivery or takeaways. Indoor entertainment venues will also be shut.

The government said it would review the tier allocations on 16 December.

It explained that infections across Kent and Medway were high, and continuing to rise "with large increases in case rates in almost all areas in the last seven days".

It said some of the highest case rates in the country were currently in Kent, with rising cases in people aged over 60 a particular concern.

Swale continues to have the highest rate in England, with 799 new cases recorded in the seven days to 22 November - the equivalent of 532.4 cases per 100,000 people, down from 637.7 in the previous seven days.

Thanet has the second highest rate, down from 522.8 to 478.4, with 679 new cases.

However, other parts of Kent, including Tunbridge Wells and Ashford, have been below the national average.

by Lauren Moss, BBC South East Political Editor

Placing more than 1.5 million people in Kent and Medway into the toughest level of restrictions will be greeted with dismay by some, but perhaps it shouldn't come as a huge surprise.

The rate of coronavirus infection varies pretty widely across the area but figures show it is climbing up in Folkestone and Hythe, Dover, Gravesham, Maidstone, and Medway, although it has now started to slow down in Thanet and Swale.

Both authorities will be hoping mass rapid testing that has been promised to all areas in tier three will play a part in bringing down the spread of infection, much like it's believed to have done in Liverpool.

Everyone will be keeping a close eye on those numbers when the restrictions are reviewed on the 16 December.

Tory MPs in Kent had lobbied the Prime Minister to not impose county-wide restrictions due to the variations in case numbers.

The group said: "We must allow businesses to prosper and not be held back by restrictions not suitable for their area."

Sir Roger Gale, the Conservative MP for North Thanet, said while the tier restrictions would not be a shock to his constituents, he nevertheless had backed the call for a district approach.

"The pandemic doesn't understand county boundaries. There is no logic to this at all," he said.

Roger Truelove, leader of Swale Borough Council, said he agreed with the tier three restrictions.

"I hope that that's an incentive for local people to comply as much as possible with the guidance so we get our numbers down.

"We want to push them further down," he said.

Leader of Medway Council, Alan Jarrett, said the restrictions were "absolutely necessary".

"I appreciate we all want to get back to doing the things we love and therefore each and every one of us must act now and join the fight against Covid-19," he said.