Tier 2 lockdown beckons for Windsor and Maidenhead as infection rate soars

Coronavirus infections are continuing to rise around most areas after it was revealed council bosses in a Berkshire borough have asked for stricter restrictions.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has asked the government to move into Tier 2 of restrictions.

The latest figures show figures have rocketed in the affluent borough and most of Berkshire.

One area, West Berkshire, is seeing a fall in cases.

What this means is that people in Windsor and Maidenhead will face stricter restrictions than its neighbours in Berkshire.
A statement posted on the council's Facebook page said: "Our Covid cases are increasing at a worrying and alarming rate.

"We were placed in the medium tier but due to the rapid rise we will be asking to government to move us into the High Tier next week."

A number of towns in the north are currently under Tier 3 - or "very high risk" restrictions.

Government adviser Sir John Bell has said a short national circuit-breaker may be necessary as he described other measures as “biting around the edges”.

The regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I can see very little way of getting on top of this without some kind of a circuit-breaker because the numbers are actually pretty eye-watering in some bits of the country and I think it’s going to be very hard to get on top of this just biting around the edges.

“I think there will be every effort to keep schools open.

“If in the end we have to take kids out for two weeks, calm it all down, and then start ideally embedded in a much more rigorous testing regime then that’s maybe what we may have to do.”