The Prime Minister has announced a new Tier 4 will come into place in Milton Keynes from midnight tonight due to a new stain of COVID-19 in London, the South East and the East of England.
Under the new restrictions households will not be able to mix, but support bubbles will remain in place for people who live on their own.
Non-essential retail, leisure and personal care services will all have to close while you should not enter or leave a Tier 4 area.
The previous 'Stay At Home' message from the November lockdown will return meaning you should only leave your home for specific reasons including exercise and work (if you can not work from home).
Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty commented on the new stain:
"As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance.
"As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modelling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the South East, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly.
"We have alerted the World Health Organisation and are continuing to analyse the available data to improve our understanding.
"There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments although urgent work is underway to confirm this.
"Given this latest development it is now more vital than ever that the public continue to take action in their area to reduce transmission."