Covid rules: New local lockdown restrictions in England to be unveiled

New local lockdown rules for England are due to be announced later.

The Liverpool City Region is expected to face the tightest restrictions under a new "three tier" system, which will classify regions as being at a "medium," "high" or "very high" level of alert.

But Steve Rotheram, the city region's mayor, said "no deal has been agreed".

Talks between local leaders elsewhere in England and the government in Westminster continue.

Liverpool recorded 600 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending 6 October. The average for England was 74.

The Liverpool City Region includes the local authority districts of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral, as well as Liverpool.

More clarity is expected on Monday, with new restrictions to be reviewed after a month.

BBC political correspondent Chris Mason said Monday's announcement would mark "a distinct new phase in how the pandemic is managed in England".

He said we will get the details of the three tiers but it will "take time" before it is known in which tier each of the different regions will be placed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee on Monday "to determine the final interventions".

He will announce the changes in the Commons in the afternoon, before speaking at a Downing Street press conference in the evening.

The prime minister is expected to be joined by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and England's Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Whitty.

Under the new system, Tier 3 is expected to involve the tightest restrictions.

In a tweet, Mr Rotherham said the government has "been clear from the start" that it plans to place the Liverpool City Region in that category.

"Whilst we have asked for the evidence to support the decision, none has been forthcoming," he said.

"Throughout, we have been clear that new restrictions must come with the financial support to protect local jobs and businesses."

He added: "No agreement has yet been reached on this point and negotiations are ongoing. As in all these things, the devil will be in the detail. A deal is not a deal until it is agreed."

Mr Rotheram has previously warned the government "can't do lockdown on the cheap" and called for a support package for the city region.

He said the government should pay 80% of workers' wages - as was the case under the furlough scheme - if their employers are shut down, rather than the 67% to be paid under the expanded Job Support Scheme.

In a video posted to his Twitter account on Sunday, he warned that the region would not accept a "lower rate" of financial support, especially when it had a "huge, disproportionate number working in the visitor economy - people who are on less than £9 an hour".

Meanwhile, Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool (the city, as opposed to the region), tweeted: "We have not agreed anything, we have been told this is what government intends to do with 'no buts'."

The problem with introducing the sort of restrictions that are being suggested to control the spread of the virus is that no-one is really sure whether they will really work.

Firstly, while the government's advisers can track patterns in where infected individuals have been prior to being diagnosed, they cannot prove that they were actually infected in those places.

Secondly, there will be unintended consequences.

Close venues and you may make the situation worse by driving people to mix more in private homes which are less "Covid-secure".

It is a point that has been made in recent days by Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese as well as others as ministers weigh up their options.

Then there is the economic, social and emotional toll of closing down parts of a community.

These are decisions that will divide opinion and, what is more, it will be nigh on impossible to judge exactly what impact they will have had on the virus.

It was thought Manchester may be included in Tier 3, but the BBC understands there have been no contacts between ministers and political leaders in Greater Manchester since Friday night.

Sacha Lord, Greater Manchester's night-time economy advisor, has started legal proceedings to challenge any restrictions on hospitality and entertainment venues in the north of England.

He said there is "currently no tangible scientific evidence to merit a full closure" of the sectors and that local leaders' requests for evidence have been "ignored".

"We have now engaged lawyers to begin a judicial review into the legality of the emergency restrictions due to be imposed on the hospitality and entertainment sectors," he said - a move he added that was supported by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.

Greater Manchester Police handed out more than 70 fines over the weekend for breaches of coronavirus laws, which included a gathering of up to 100 people.

On Saturday, officers broke up a party of up to 100 students at a property in south Manchester, issuing seven fines and a noise abatement order.

Police were called to a separate house party the same night, where up to 20 people attempted to flee from the back of the property, resulting in four fines being issued.

Pubs and restaurants across the central belt of Scotland closed for at least two weeks on Friday, but the hospitality minister has said there is "no guarantee" they will be able to reopen after 25 October.

People in 17 parts of Wales now face local lockdown rules - and cannot leave these areas without a good reason, such as going to work.

And ministers and health officials in Northern Ireland spent Sunday discussing what to do about the rapidly increasing rates of the virus. One MP said he believed lockdowns would be examined by the Northern Ireland Executive on Monday.

On Sunday, 12,872 people in the UK were reported to have tested positive for coronavirus - some 2,294 fewer than on Saturday.

There were a further 65 deaths - down from 81 on Saturday.