Lincolnshire will move to tier 4 from midnight (December 31).

This includes the City of Lincoln, Boston, South Kesteven, West Lindsey, North Kesteven, South Holland and East Lindsey.

Neighbouring counties Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire will also move into tier 4.

This comes as Tuesday saw national cases increase by 53,135 to 2,382,865, the highest daily rise recorded ever.

Similar to the November lockdown, tier 4 means non-essential shops, hairdressers, and leisure and entertainment venues must close, and people need to "stay at home".

As a result, health workers are said to be "back in the eye of the storm" according to NHS England's chief executive Simon Stevens.

Wednesday saw the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine being approved by the UK medicines regulator, raising the hopes of a rapid scale-up of vaccination against COVID-19 within days.

The second dose of the coronavirus vaccines will now be given later than originally planned, so more people can be given the first dose, according to experts.