Celebrating New Tiers Eve! Drinkers in areas moving up to Tier 3 enjoy their final pints

Drinkers in Tier 2 areas have taken to bars and pubs for their last pint of the year before being plunged into Tier 3 or Tier 4 at midnight after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that almost all of England will face life under tougher restrictions until the Spring.

Revellers were spotted crowding the streets in Liverpool for the last time in 2020 as they queued to enter a bar for the last remaining hours before the region moves into Tier 3, with bars and hospitality venues forced to close other than providing takeaway services. 

Elsewhere in the country drinkers were seen putting the world to rights in Exeter as they sat laughing and joking outside a bar in the city centre, in what may be their only chance to celebrate the upcoming New Year before the area moves into Tier 3. 

Speaking during a press conference this evening Boris Johnson warned of a new ‘reality’ with mutant Covid rampant tonight as he plunged virtually the whole of England into brutal lockdown – with the UK recording 981 deaths in the worst daily toll since April and vaccines the only hope of escape.

The PM voiced ‘bitter regret’ after it was announced that three quarters of the country will be in Tier 4 from midnight, adding the rest of the South East, Midlands, North East, parts of the North West and parts of the South West to the top bracket. 

 The highest Tier 4 rules, which require all non-essential shops to close, will now apply to more than 44 million. 

All remaining areas – barring just 2,000 people on the Isles of Scilly – are being escalated to Tier 3, including Liverpool, previously seen as an example of how to cope with the disease.

Meanwhile, secondary schools have seen their return delayed even further in January, with most pupils now shut out until at least January 18 – two weeks longer than originally planned – while testing systems are put in place.

Hundreds of primaries in the ‘highest infection’ areas will also not fully reopen from January 4, while secondaries will have to wait until the next tier review in two weeks to learn whether they must stay shut indefinitely.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are already in the midst of their own clampdowns amid fears over the more infectious ‘mutant’ strain that is running riot.