Five key factors which will decide if Dacorum faces stricter Covid restrictions in Tier Three

Dacorum currently remains in Tier Two with five other district council areas in Hertfordshire.

On Monday, a statement from David Williams, leader of Hertfordshire County Council, was sent to The Gazette after the government’s announcement that the districts of Broxbourne, Hertsmere, Three Rivers and Watford will move to Very High (Tier 3) of the Local COVID alert levels at 00:01 on Wednesday 16 December.

Read: Four Herts districts moved to Tier 3 but Dacorum remains in Tier 2 for nowThese are the five key factors which will decide if Dacorum, and other parts of Hertfordshire go into the highest tier of Covid-19 restrictions from next week.

Tier Three restrictions would mean no mixing of households, pubs and restaurants could only operate as takeaways and fans banned once again from sporting events.

Experts from the Joint Biosecurity Centre, Public Health England and the NHS monitors the number of new infections, positivity rates, and pressures on health services.

They are due meet and review the Covid Winter Plan by Wednesday (December 16).

Their verdict will be passed onto Government ministers for the final decisions on which — if any — areas will have risk levels raised or lowered.

Final decisions on tiers are made by the Prime Minister at the Covid Operations Committee and are expected to be announced by Thursday with new rules coming into force at the weekend.

Here are the five factors being considered:

>Case detection rates in all age groups

> Case detection rates in the over-60s age group

> The rate at which cases are rising or falling

> Positivity rate — the number of positive cases detected as a percentage of tests taken

> Pressure on the NHS, including current and projected occupancy.