Worthing and Shoreham MP on tier 4 move: ‘Things are going to get worse before they get better’

From Boxing Day, the whole of Sussex will be placed under the tightest social restrictions in a bid to halt a new, more contagious strain of coronavirus.

Mr Loughton described the news as ‘very disappointing’, but said the increases in infection across the county showed how quickly the situation can escalate.

“I have not been in favour of blanket national lockdowns and I have queried the evidence that requires such a blunt instrument that impacts so dramatically on certain livelihoods and people’s lives but I have never been in any doubt about the seriousness of the threat that faces us all and that is never clearer than now,” he said.

“I want to thank everyone who has made so many sacrifices to take every precaution against spreading the virus, but it is likely that things are going to get worse before they get better and it is important that everyone abides by the new restrictions.”

West Sussex and much of East Sussex will join Hastings and Rother in tier 4 after Christmas, as health secretary Matt Hancock announced stricter restrictions across the south of England.

Cases in Sussex have soared over the last couple of weeks and Mr Loughton said cases across the South East were up by 75 per cent in the last week alone.

He said he held briefings with the head of the Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust today (December 23) and West Sussex’s hospitals are ‘coping well’, but numbers in the Sussex County and Princess Royal hospitals are moving up sharply.

The new strain of coronavirus discovered in the south east led to many European countries to close their borders to the UK to stop it spreading onto the continent.

But Mr Loughton said the new strain was highly likely to already be on the continent, they just had not been picked up on.

A new, even more contagious strain thought to have originated in South Africa is also causing decision makers concern.