Northamptonshire residents yet to find out what tier of lockdown the county will fall under

A new lockdown system has been announced in preparation for it to be introduced later this week.

Boris Johnson addressed the House of Commons this afternoon (October 12) to lay out his three tier system, which categorises areas into 'medium', 'high' and 'very high' depending on their rate of infection.

The Prime Minister confirmed in his address to MPs that Nottinghamshire would be classed as 'high' meaning there is to be no indoor household mixing. He also said the Liverpool city region would fall under the 'very high' category, whereby pubs and bars, gyms, casinos and other businesses will have to close once again.

However, he did not confirm the status of all areas of England and there was no mention of Northamptonshire.

As the county as a whole is below the national average and below 100 cases per 100,000 of the population, it is expected that Northamptonshire will be placed in the 'medium' category.

This would mean the rule of six and 10pm curfew will continue as cases are monitored. All areas of the country will fall into this category by default unless stated otherwise.

Mr Johnson also confirmed that the Government is working with local authorities to workout which category is best for each area and these should be finalised by the latest of tomorrow (October 13) ready to enforce on Wednesday (October 14).

Despite expectations that the county will fall under the lowest level of lockdown, director of Public Health Northamptonshire, Lucy Wightman, expressed her concerns at the local weekly press briefing on Friday (October 9).

She said: "I do worry that new legislation that will be brought in will not be enough for areas that are at threat of significant increase in cases.

"I am awaiting guidance with baited breath to see where Northants will be placed on the different levels of intervention and what restrictions will be applied to each area.

"If I wasn't waiting for the that guidance I would have already gone harder with our messaging.

"If I and my partners do not believe these measures are enough to stop or stem then flow of cases locally then we will be taking more local action.

"We need to make sure we do not escalate in the same way that have seen elsewhere because we know where that heads and that is a lockdown that is not good for people's mental health, for the economy or for a number of reasons."

The Chronicle & Echo has contacted Northampton Borough Council and Public Health Northamptonshire to ask what category the town will be listed under.

Although other local authorities around England have been able to confirm their areas status today (October 12), at the time of publishing, NBC said it couldn't comment and Public Health it yet to respond.

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