Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced the new areas that will enter Tier 3 restrictions in the next few days. 

The new restrictions could have a catastrophic economic impact on the areas as pubs and restaurants will be forced to close except for takeaway and delivery services. 

Mr Hancock provided a coronavirus update in the House of Commons this afternoon, at around 3.30pm, after briefing MPs on the plans in a separate call.

He told the Commons that experts had identified a new variant of Covid-19 which he said "may be associated with the faster spread" of the virus in the South East of England. 

>> Live updates as Matt Hancock announces new Tier 3 areas

Mr Hancock said there were "sharp exponential rises" in Covid-19 cases across London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire. But he said: "We do not know the extent to which this is because of the variant." 

In some areas, he said the doubling time is every seven days.

The Health Secretary confirmed all the areas that will go into Tier 3 from midnight on Wednesday morning:

Greater London

South and west of Essex

  • Basildon
  • Brentwood
  • Harlow
  • Epping Forest
  • Castle Point
  • Rochford
  • Maldon
  • Braintree
  • Chelmsford
  • Thurrock
  • Southend-on-Sea

South of Hertfordshire

  • Broxbourne
  • Hertsmere
  • Watford
  • Three Rivers

Mr Hancock said the new variant appears to be growing faster than the existing variants and that there are more than 1,000 cases of the new variant in nearly 60 local authority areas, predominantly in the south of England. 

But he stressed there is "nothing to suggest this more likely to cause more serious disease" and he said it is "highly unlikely to fail to respond to the vaccine".