The British capital's move into "Tier 3" from 0001 GMT Wednesday means theatres as well as pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues will have to close, except for takeaway food. But while the prevalence of Covid-19 cases fell in England by around 30 per cent during lockdown between November 13 and December 3, prevalence was rising in London, according to Imperial College London's REACT-1 prevalence study.
On Monday, UK Health Minister Matt Hancock said that London and other parts of southeast England will move on Wednesday into Tier 3, the highest level of the COVID-19 alert system implemented by the UK government to try to stop the spread of the pandemic.
He said the World Health Organization had been notified and United Kingdom scientists were doing detailed studies.
E tell MPs for di House of Commons say over di last week, sharp rise dey for di virus across London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire.
"We've now identified over 1,000 cases with this variant predominantly in the South of England although cases have been identified in almost 60 different local authority areas".
"We no know di extent to which dis one be because of di new variant but no matter di cause we need to take swift and decisive action wey unfortunately dey absolutely essential to control dis deadly disease while dem roll out di vaccine".
Mr Hancock also announced that a new coronavirus variant had been found in the past few days that could be connected to a surge of cases in England's south.
The changes or mutations involve the spike protein of the virus - the part that helps it infect cells, and the target COVID-19 vaccines are designed around.
Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of Wellcome, said it was potentially serious.
Mr Khan continued: "There's no reason you have to kiss or hug an older relation, if you're seeing members of your family indoor who are older, even if they're younger, allow ventilation because none of us wants to inadvertently pass the virus on".
