THE national coronavirus lockdown in England will end next week as the government reintroduces a "toughened" tier system for restrictions.

Addressing the House of Commons, Boris Johnson said lockdown measures will expire and not be renewed after December 2.

The Prime Minister said he hopes details on the tiers each area will go into can be outlined on Thursday, November 26.

Some of the key parts of the tier system announced by Mr Johnson include:

  • In Tiers 1 and 2 spectator sports and business events will be free to resume inside and outside with capacity limits and social distancing
  • In Tier 1 people should work from home wherever possible.
  • In Tier 2, alcohol may only be served in hospitality settings as part of a substantial meal.
  • In Tier 3, indoor entertainment, hotels and other accommodation will have to close, along with all forms of hospitality except for delivery and takeaways.
  • In areas where pubs can open, closing time will be 11pm with last orders at 10pm.

Read more: What the new tiers mean

Mr Johnson said: “From next Wednesday people will be able to leave their home for any purpose and meet others in outdoor public spaces, subject to the rule of six, collective worship, weddings and outdoor sports can resume, and shops, personal care, gyms and the wider leisure sector can reopen.

“But without sensible precautions, we would risk the virus escalating into a winter or New Year surge.

“The incidents of the disease is, alas, still widespread in many areas.”

The Prime Minister said there will be a return to “tougher” regional tiers.

He said: “So we’re not going to replace national measures with a free for all, the status quo anti-Covid, we’re going to go back instead to a regional tiered approach – applying the toughest measures where Covid is most prevalent.

“And while the previous local tiers did cut the ‘R’ number, they were not quite enough to reduce it below one.

“So the scientific advice, I’m afraid, is that as we come out our tiers need to be made tougher.”

Unlike the pre-second lockdown tiers, the rules will be uniform.

On the situation with Christmas, he said: “I can’t say that Christmas will be normal this year, but in a period of adversity time spent with loved ones is even more precious for people of all faiths and none.

“We all want some kind of Christmas, we need it, we certainly feel we deserve it. But what we don’t want is to throw caution to the winds and allow the virus to flare up again, forcing us all back into lockdown in January.

“So to allow families to come together, while minimising the risk, we’re working with the devolved administrations on a special time-limited Christmas dispensation, embracing the whole of the United Kingdom.”

Mr Johnson said rapid testing will be used by the end of the year to allow every care home resident to have two visitors who can be tested twice a week.

He also told MPs: “Care workers looking after people in their own homes will be offered weekly tests from today. And from next month, weekly tests will also be available to staff in prisons, food manufacturing and those delivering and administering Covid vaccines.”

Mr Johnson said testing will enable students to “go home safely for Christmas” and return back to university.