More places will be moving to higher tiers from midnight tonight, including Salisbury and Wiltshire.

From tomorrow (December 31), pubs and restaurants will have to shut once more. Only takeaway service is permitted.

The tightening of the restrictions is aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus which is currently under control due to a number of more infectious variants that have been detected across the country.

All areas in England will soon be in either Tier 3 or Tier 4. The only area that will remain in Tier 1 is the Isles of Scilly.

But what is the decision based on?

According to the government website, there are five indicators determining which area falls into which tier.

These are: 

  • case detection rates in all age groups
  • case detection rates in the over-60s
  • the rate at which cases are rising or falling
  • positivity rate (the number of positive cases detected as a percentage of tests taken)
  • pressure on the NHS

In the Wiltshire Council area, cases have been rising rapidly and there were concern that Wiltshire would be moving one tier up before Christmas.

In the latest 24-hour period, 162 infections were recorded bringing the total number of infections to 7,547.

Specific data for Salisbury is not available but infections have been rising pretty much everywhere, a map on the government coronavirus dashboard shows.

Staff at Salisbury District Hospital are facing "intense" pressure due to the rising number of patients testing positive for coronavirus. 

Visiting has had to be suspended as a result.

As of 2pm on Wednesday (December 30), 50 inpatients with Covid-19 are currently being cared for. The number is higher than it was during the first peak in April.