You can meet friends and family in gardens again from tomorrow in Greater Manchester 

Greater Manchester was placed in Tier 2 of the new local tiering system put in place by the government, meaning some rules have changed. 

Since July 31st, when Greater Manchester was put under tighter local restrictions, mixing in private gardens has been banned.

Now the region moves into Tier 2, and meeting friends and family from outside of your household in private gardens is now allowed.

You must still follow social distancing and the rule of six. Indoor mixing between different households remains banned in Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester narrowly avoided the tighter restrictions of Tier 3, which were threatened last week when the news of the tiering system was leaked to the press. 

This means our pubs, restaurants and bars can all stay open and continue to operate as they were, closing at the 10pm curfew which is still in place nationally. 

It is understood that if coronavirus infection rates do not improve in Greater Manchester it could move in to Tier 3 and face the tighter restrictions.

However it is not yet confirmed what would trigger a movement from one tier to another.

Across all tiers, non-essential retail, universities and schools remain open.

Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Boris addressed the ‘R’ rate (the number of people each person with the virus will infect).

He said: “Left unchecked, each person with the virus will infect an average of between 2.7 and 3 others, but Sage assesses that the current R nationally is between 1.2 and 1.5.

“So we are already suppressing that R to well below its natural level, which is why the virus is not spreading as quickly as it did in March. But we need to go further.”

He continued: “In recent months we have worked with local leaders to counter local spikes with targeted restrictions, but this local approach has inevitably produced different sets of rules in different parts of the country that are now complex to understand and to enforce.

“We will now simplify and standardise our local rules, by introducing a three-tiered system of local covid alert levels in England set at medium, high and very high.

“The medium alert level will cover most of the country and will consist of the current national measures, this includes the rule of six and the closure of hospitality at 10pm.

“The high alert level reflects the interventions in many local areas at the moment. This primarily aims to reduce household to household transmission by preventing all mixing between different households or support bubbles indoors.

“In these areas, the rule of six will continue to apply outdoors where it is harder for the virus to spread in public spaces as well as private gardens.”

You can now use the new local COVID Alert level postcode checker created by the government to find out the restrictions in place in your local area.

Government advice currently states that people should not travel ‘into or out of an area if it has been categorised as a very high alert level area’. Currently, only the Liverpool City Region is placed at Very High.