Boris Johnson declines to rule out third national lockdown as infection rate rises slightly in Leeds

The Prime Minister said rates of infection have increased “very much in the last few weeks”, as pressure grows on the Government to do more to tackle the rise.

Speaking during a visit to Greater Manchester, Mr Johnson was asked whether England would follow Northern Ireland in imposing stringent restrictions after the festive period.

He said: “We’re hoping very much that we will be able to avoid anything like that. But the reality is that the rates of infection have increased very much in the last few weeks.”

It comes as the Government placed large parts of southern and eastern England into the top tier and dashed hopes in northern regions of an easing of restrictions.

Bucking the national trend, the infection rate has been falling in Leeds and Leeds City Council said it was "disappointed" that the city is to remain in Tier 3 over Christmas.

But the rate has risen slightly over the last week.

Leeds had a rate of 140 new cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to December 13, the latest available figures.

It's a slight rise from a rate of 139.1 the previous week.

-> Leeds pubs and bars react as Tier 3 rule remains meaning they can't open to customers at Christmas

Schools minister Nick Gibb earlier insisted England’s tier system, which will see swathes of southern and eastern England move to the toughest restrictions, is “very effective”.

But he added “we rule nothing out” when asked about the possibility of a national lockdown after Christmas.

The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Katherine Henderson, described a “real perfect storm” for hospitals as they try to balance increased numbers of Covid-19 patients with non-Covid work and a lack of beds.

She said: “It seems to me we need to do whatever it takes to get the situation firmly under control so that we can vaccinate people and then move forward.”

On Friday, President Donald Trump said a second coronavirus vaccine, made by Moderna, has been approved for use in the US.

The UK Government has secured seven million doses of the jab – enough to vaccinate about 3.5 million people – and it is still under consideration for approval here by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Mr Johnson has reiterated his warnings to people to see the five-day Christmas relaxation period as “very much a maximum – that’s not a target people should aim for”.

He added: “Keep it short, keep it small, have yourselves a very little Christmas as I said the other night – that is, I’m afraid, the way through this year.

“Next year I have no doubt that as we roll out the vaccine and all the other things that we’re doing, it will be very, very different indeed.”

Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said nurses would not enjoy Christmas “knowing what awaits them in January”, amid fears of what she predicted could be an “unrelenting tsunami” of cases following relaxed restrictions.

She said ministers should give “fresh and more detailed” advice to the public with a week to go until Christmas.

Dr Nick Scriven, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said a period of mixing next week “strikes fear into the hearts of clinicians on the front line”.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest half of adults across the country are planning to form a Christmas bubble.

The survey, carried out between December 10 and 13, before Mr Johnson urged people to scale back their festive plans, also found that fewer people are planning social activities such as meeting in pubs, cafes or bars, compared with last year.

Up to three households are able to mix between December 23 and 27, while travel to and from Northern Ireland is also permitted on December 22 and 28.

The ONS said the proportion of people testing positive for Covid-19 is estimated to have increased sharply in London, with other increases in Eastern England, the East Midlands and south-east England, while rates have continued to decrease in north-west England and Yorkshire and the Humber.