England will enter its toughest nationwide lockdown since the first Covid lockdown in March, with schools closed and people allowed to leave home once a day for exercise for at least six weeks.

It comes as the numbers of people in hospital reach new highs and Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the NHS as being in very clear danger of being overwhelmed.

Although the DVSA has yet to issue a statement, it can be presumed that all driver training and testing must stop from midnight tonight (4th January). Following many of the conditions of the first lockdown,  training and testing of ‘key workers’ is likely to be permitted. However, we will clarify this when we have more details.

Under the third national lockdown, people in England will be ordered to stay at home until at least 15 February and advised only to leave once a day for exercise. All schools and colleges will be closed and education carried out online only, except for children of key workers.

MPs are expected to vote the tough new measures into law from Wednesday, though businesses will be advised to close from Monday night.

Across the country, people must now only leave home for work – and only if it is impossible to work from home – and for essential food and medicine. Exercise with one other person from a different household is permitted but the advice is to stay local and limit activity to once a day.

Key Points:

  1. People in England are told to work from home after a sharp rise in coronavirus cases
  2. All schools and colleges will close to most pupils from Tuesday with remote learning until February half term
  3. End-of-year exams will not take place this summer as normal
  4. PM suggests England could “steadily” move out of lockdown from mid-February
  5. People in Scotland will also be legally required to stay at home – except for essential purposes – from midnight tonight
  6. Most schools in Scotland will remain closed until 1 February
  7. “Material risk” of NHS in several areas being overwhelmed over the next 21 days say chief medical officers
  8. The newly-approved coronavirus vaccine created by Oxford University and AstraZeneca is being rolled out across the UK today
  9. Globally more than 85 million cases of Covid have been reported and 1.84 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University

Official details and guidance can be found at: gov.uk/coronavirus