The Environment Secretary has defended the Government’s decision to place Manchester in Tier 3 of the new coronavirus restrictions.
The region will be placed in the highest tier when the national lockdown comes to an end in England later this week.
Many have criticised the decision as several boroughs in London - going into Tier 2 this week - have higher infection rates than Trafford and Stockport.
But Environment Secretary George Eustice has explained that there are several reasons for placing the region into Tier 3.
“The reason that some areas are in Tier 3 and others are in Tier 2 is that it’s not just the incidence rate of the disease, if you like the R value as we’ve all come to know it, it’s the prevalence rate,” he told Good Morning Britain on ITV this morning.
“And where the prevalence is higher that’s taken into account, particularly where there’s a high prevalence in the over-60s.
“And also the Government takes into account things such as the pressure on the NHS and whether there’s capacity to deal with growth in numbers, and it looks at trends as well.
“So there are a number of different criteria that are considered. That accounts for why Manchester is in Tier 3.”
When asked why gyms can reopen in Tier 3 areas but not restaurants, Mr Eustice said eating venues were places where people were more likely to socialise.
He described the new tiering system as “draconian” but said they were short-term emergency measures.
He told Good Morning Britain: “The great challenge throughout this is that people meeting in pubs and in restaurants, these are by their definition social interactions, people go to the pub and go to restaurants to socialise.”
On gyms, he said: “It’s sometimes down to the fact that the number of people going to those gyms would be lower and they are less likely to be, for instance, sat around a table, they can do social distancing more easily.
“It’s not perfect and never will be when you’re introducing quite draconian emergency measures, which is what these are.”
Mr Eustice admitted the new restrictions under the tiering system and the changing rules over the Christmas period were not “perfectly consistent”.
But he defended the Government’s plans to allow families to meet during Christmas but not at a restaurant because gatherings will be limited to bubbles of three households.
“Sometimes you will have measures and they may look like they are not perfectly consistent with others, that’s going to be in the nature when you do emergency short-term measures like this,” he told Good Morning Britain.
“We are trying to strike a balance here and doing this over Christmas people want to be able to want to come together.”
