Council leader urges residents to ‘stay at home’ as national lockdown announcement expected to include school closures and a work from home rule with key workers and construction as exceptions

The updates comes ahead of a televised announcement on tougher restrictions from the prime minister at 8 pm this evening.

It is widely anticipated that the UK will enter a similar lockdown to the one in March 2020 as Covid cases continue to rise, today’s figures were a record 58,784 new reported cases of the virus.

Cllr David Mellen, Leader of Nottingham City Council said in an update today Monday 4 January 2021:

‘As infection rates increase across the country, even stricter measures are now anticipated, with an announcement from the Prime Minister expected later this evening on what these will be.

‘Although rates in Nottingham are currently below the national average, we don’t want to see the incredibly worrying infection rates and hospital pressures that some areas are now experiencing.

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‘I know that Nottingham people will continue to do the right thing to limit the spread of the virus locally and I will continue to lobby Government on the issue of support for local people, businesses, jobs and education to help us through this pandemic.

‘At the moment, ‘Stay at Home’ restrictions remain in place in Nottingham. This means that we must stay at stay at home as much as possible; non-essential retail will stay closed, people should work from home if they can and you can only meet one person from another household outdoors.’

‘Around one in three people have no symptoms so will be spreading it without even realising, for now the best way to help limit the spread is to act like you’ve got it. Please continue to

• Wash hands regularly
• Wear a face covering in public spaces
• Maintain social distance.

‘If you have at least one of these symptoms – high temperature, new continuous cough or loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – then book a test for Covid-19 online  or call 119. You MUST stay home until you get the result.

‘To help all our communities understand the new key COVID-19 safety measures and restrictions, there are downloadable translation guides for 16 different languages on our website here: www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/coronavirus/translations.’