this is bbc news with the latest headlines... 18 million people in england are told to stay at home on the first day of new tier 4 coronavirus restrictions. the new variant is out of control and we need to bring it under control, and this news about the new variant has been an incredibly difficult end to, frankly, an awful year. similar restrictions are introduced across the whole of wales — and a three—week lockdown will be imposed in mainland scotland from boxing day. the health secretary labels crowded scenes at london stations last night as "irresponsible" — the transport secretary says extra police officers will be deployed to enforce the rules. the netherlands, italy and belgium ban flights to and from the uk because of concerns about the new coronavirus variant.

and coming up — we'll be answering your questions on the change in christmas restrictions, as well as the new coronavirus variant good afternoon. almost 18 million people are today living in tougher tier 4 restrictions in parts of england because of what the government says is a variant of coronavirus which is spreading rapidly. all previous tier 3 areas in the south east and east of england — including london, kent and most of essex — have moved into tier 4. the public is being asked to stay at home and there will be no "christmas bubbles" for gatherings. get—togethers will be restricted to meeting one other person outside in an open public space. non—essential shops have closed along with gyms,

beauty salons and hairdressers. for those living in tiers 1 to 3 in england, "christmas bubble" gatherings can now only take place on christmas day itself. meanwhile, all of wales is now in lockdown — restrictions only easing for christmas day. and scotland is also only relaxing its rules on christmas day, with the highest level of restrictions coming into force for the whole country on boxing day. all travel to the rest of the uk is also banned for the festive season. northern ireland has already announced its new national lockdown, from december the 26th. this morning the health secretary matt hancock said he understood people's frustrations with the change in restrictions but said they were necessary to try and get the new variant of the virus under control. jessica parker reports. st pancras station last night, hours before new stay—at—home rules came in — scenes the health secretary described as irresponsible. but among all those who didn't

board to leave london, a student who had hoped to see family in ireland. it's just been a really challenging year being away from my family. and this was finally a christmas where i could just get some freedom from a year that's just been really difficult. but, obviously, we have to adjust, just like i had to adjust last time, so itjust won't be very easy. ministers say they had to act. the new lockdown for london, parts of east and south east england, known as tier 4, christmas plans cut back across the rest of england as a more infectious variant of the virus spreads. the new variant is out of control and we need to bring it under control, and this news about the new variant has been an incredibly difficult end to, frankly, an awful year. lockdown in wales has been brought forward. the christmas relaxation rules curbed as they have been in scotland where, across the mainland, tighter restrictions come in on boxing day. northern ireland will keep

the relaxation, but was already set for lockdown from the 26th. for england, a suggestion tighter controls could be here for some time. we don't know how long these measures are going to be in place. it may be for some time until we can get the vaccine going. that isn't an easy thing to say. so little looks normal this year. labour has accused the prime minister of waiting until the 11th hour to toughen up the rules. we have a prime minister who is so scared of being unpopular, that he is incapable of taking tough decisions until it's too late. whether that was going into the lockdown in the first place, extending the furlough scheme, bringing in a circuit breaker in october to protect the economy and now christmas. ministers claim they acted quickly following a scientific briefing on friday afternoon. with days to go, millions of people now have to re—examine their plans and face a very different —

in some cases, very difficult — festive season. jessica parker, bbc news. so just how has the coronavirus mutated and why is it now considered more transmissible and requiring many of us to rethink our christmas plans? here's our health correspondentjim reed. that a virus can mutate is no surprise. it's when those mutations change the behaviour of the illness that scientists start to get concerned. the first traces of this new variant of the coronavirus were found in two samples taken in kent and london back in september. it then started to spread rapidly. doctors say they think the change could make the virus spread up to 70% faster. when we find the virus, we are finding the virus in the nose and throat. the higher amount of virus means that people are likely to be more infectious than they would otherwise be, and this means that we need to reiterate the social distancing measures — keep your distance, reduce your contact.

the new variant of coronavirus has 23 genetic changes, some of which are focused around this spike protein on the outside of the virus itself. scientists think that might make it easier to latch onto cells inside the human body. there is no evidence so far that the changes make the disease any more serious or deadly, though researchers are studying hospital patients now to confirm that. a more infectious virus means more people can catch it quickly. that could put pressure on the nhs at a time when the number in hospital with the virus is already nearing the peak of the first wave in april. it might also mean that existing social distancing rules are not tough enough to contain the spread. it's one reason for those tier 4 restrictions in london and the south—east of england. it's a thousand little decisions every day about what we do. we need to know what our risk is when we go about our day, and we need to take those steps to limit those risks.

the virus may be more transmissible with this particular variant, and circulating in certain areas, but there are measures that can reduce the spread. the worry with any change to the structure of a virus is that it might make a vaccine less effective. so far, though, there is no evidence of that in this case. the hope is that a widespread roll—out of the jab will still be enough to put an end to this pandemic. jim reed, bbc news. dr katherine henderson is president of the royal college of emergency medicine, and joins me now. thank and joins me now. you forjoining us on bbc news. thank you forjoining us on bbc news. some suggestions that the new variant is 70% more transmissible. is this the right decision to go into tier 4? we have been calling for not doing the christmas relaxation for some time, so, yes, from my point of view, sadly, medically, it is absolutely the

right thing to do. your report talked about could put pressures on the nhs. it is already under pressure. we are already getting crowding in our departments and already getting ambulance crews. we are already finding it difficult to get beds for patients. we certainly can't carry on as we were. england has had to divert patients 44 times since last week. just talk is what that means and what that means in terms of the pressure hospitals are under. no one would ever want to do this because the worst thing to happen is for the patient to end up in the wrong hospital without the services they need. it often means that their length of stay is longer so that their length of stay is longer so it becomes a self—defeating circle. the idea is sometimes that ifa circle. the idea is sometimes that if a departmentjust cannot take any more patients in because there is no more patients in because there is no more space, the ambulances move elsewhere. that is ok if you have got lots of hospitals and in london thatis got lots of hospitals and in london that is not quite such a problem as

it might be another places, but even so, in between boroughs for social services systems are different, moving hospitals might not be a good move, so moving hospitals might not be a good move, so we moving hospitals might not be a good move, so we don't want to do that. where are we in terms of capacity compared with the heat of the outbreak was our problem is hospital beds. that is causing the difficulties in the urgency and emergency care pathway. once a patient has come into the a&e department and they have identified that they need admission, we need to move them to hospital bed. last winter, we started without enough beds. we have gone into this winter with even less beds, because we have to socially distance. plus, we have got the staffing issues. we have got staff who are sick themselves or quarantining, so we cannot run hospital beds. we have got a huge problem of actually finding the

right bed for the patient and we have to have a set that means they are kept safe from patients who may have grown a virus themselves. that is if they're coming in with issues not related to coronavirus. this time around, we are trying to do much more in the health service than we did last time. last time, wejust focused on coronavirus. this time, we are trying to keep other services going and, unfortunately, that means we are using beds for lots of things, not just we are using beds for lots of things, notjust coronavirus patients, and it is very, very tight indeed. what about the nightingale hospitals? they are a lovely idea but you have got to have a staff for them. —— a lovely idea in terms of space. so the predictions are what? jeremy hunt, former health secretary, was saying when he was in

the position, january, february, they were the nightmare scenarios for him because of a winter flu and other scenarios as well. how bad could it get even despite tier 4 restrictions now? we know that some of the patients who will be admitted in the next two, three, weeks are already infected. there's nothing we can do about them. what we can do is make sure community transmission goes down so that there is not another wave after that. we also have got to the upside that we are not seeing very much flu at all. people have been very good about taking the vaccine plus all that the hygiene measures also reduce the spread of flu. so we have not been getting the best of flu that we otherwise might have had so long may that last. similarly, winter vomiting virus, we are not seeing anything like as much of. but we are going to have to manage the said thatis going to have to manage the said that is already, to use the phrase, baked into the system of the

patients that have already caught the virus in the last few days who are the ones that will then progress to the hospital admissions and then sadly, ultimately, the deaths at the beginning of january. we sadly, ultimately, the deaths at the beginning ofjanuary. we then hope we will be able to get the vaccine rolled out to the most vulnerable as soon as possible so we can get them protected. thank you forjoining us. the new restrictions announced yesterday prevent people who live in tier 4 areas in england from leaving those areas except for limited reasons including work, education and childcare. the transport secretary, grant shapps, has tweeted saying... he also says that extra british transport police officers will be on hand at railway stations to enforce the rules. the announcements prompted a rush to london railway stations and by to clock last night, there were no tickets available online from several london stations including paddington, kings cross and euston.

this footage posted on social media showed large crowds at st pancras station waiting to board trains to leeds. italy has become the latest country to suspend all flights to and from the uk because of the new variant of coronavirus. earlier, the netherlands became the first country to announce a ban on passengerflights from the uk. flights were stopped as of 6am after the country detected its first case of the variant of coronavirus. belgium is also suspending all flights as well as train arrivals from midnight tonight. that's 11 o'clock here in the uk. it is also understood that germany are looking at introducing restrictions on air travel. police scotland says it is doubling its "operational presence" in the borders. there has been a travel restriction between scotland and other nations for a number of weeks. let's get more from our correspondent in glasgow alexandra mackenzie.

originally, those were going to be lifted on the 23rd, no law and tighter restrictions to come into force —— now law? tighter restrictions to come into force -- now law? this travel ban had already been in place but it was expected that it would be used for the five days over christmas so that people could come up from the best of the uk and scotland to spend time with family and friends, and people from scotland could travel to the rest of the uk to spend a couple of days with family and friends from the rest of the uk but that is not going to happen. nicola sturgeon announced yesterday that there is not going to be any lifting of the travel ban, not even for the one day that the easing of some of the other restrictions are happening in scotland, so there will be no easing of that ban. the first minister said yesterday that she was asking police scotla nd yesterday that she was asking police scotland and transport operators how the enforcement of this could be

strengthened. now, she did acknowledge that it was an operational matter for the chief co nsta ble of operational matter for the chief constable of police scotland. and we had from the chief constable of scotla nd had from the chief constable of scotland today, ian livingstone. he has said there would be no roadblocks or checkpoints, but he did say, as you said there, they would double the presence in the borders area of scotland. he said that the highly restrictive measures we re that the highly restrictive measures were u nfortu nately that the highly restrictive measures were unfortunately absolutely necessary to try and curb the spread of the virus. he said in a statement that he has just put out that he agreed with the first minister that all but essentialjourneys between scotla nd all but essentialjourneys between scotland and the rest of the uk should not be happening, and he explained that these highly visible patrols, they would be part of normal operational duties just to ensure that drivers and vehicles we re ensure that drivers and vehicles were fit for the road. he also said in this statement that the patrols would deter anyone who might be

considering breaching those travel restrictions. are there areas of scotla nd restrictions. are there areas of scotland that are in tiers one and two where life is more or less normal? the highlands and islands, they are having a much more normal pace of life than we are in tier 3 you're in glasgow, for example. no areas are in tier 4 at the moment, which is very close to lockdown. but, the 26th of december, boxing day, all of mainland scotland will be moving in to tier 4, which is pretty much lockdown. and that will involve or include some areas in a lower tier at the moment, so life will become more difficult and some areas will move from level one into level four as well, the highlands, for example. alexandra with the

latest. thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news... millions in england and wales are told to stay at home on the first day of new coronavirus restrictions — similar measures are to be imposed in scotland from boxing day. the health secretary labels crowded scenes at london stations last night as "irresponsible" — the transport secretary says extra police officers will be deployed to enforce the rules. the netherlands, italy and belgium ban flights to and from the uk because of concerns about the new coronavirus variant. sport and for a round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's sarah mulkerrins. celtic are currently playing in the scottish cup final against hearts at hampden park as they look for their 12th domestic trophy in a row. and it's going pretty well so far — ryan christie gave celtic the lead

with a brilliant curled effort from outside the box after 19 minutes. odsonne edouard then doubled their lead with a cheeky penalty after hearts had handballed in the box. the game is live on bbc scotland and the bbc sport website. the second half is just under way. it is still at celtic 2—0 up there. aberdeen are up to third in the scottish premiership, after a 2—0 win at kilmarnock. their first came from ryan hedges' deflected shot. the home side had brandon haunstrup sent off in injury time for this professionalfoul on sam cosgrove, and cosgrove got up and did this from the resulting free—kick — aberdeen level on points with second—placed celtic but they've played two games more. a late danny welbeck equaliser denied sheffield united theirfirst league win of the season as they drew 1—1 at brighton. united'sjob was made even harder whenjohn lundstram was sent off for this challenge,

after the referee had checked the var monitor. but against the odds they went in front — jayden bogle scoring a deflected effort on his premier league debut. sheffield united couldn't hold on as welbeck came off the bench to score in the 87th minute. chris wilder's side are still rooted to the bottom of the league onjust two points. leicester are a goal up at tottenham thanks to a penalty from jamie vardy. the second half is just getting under way. manchester united take on leeds at 4.30 and sam allardyce takes charge of west brom for the first time when they host aston villa in the late game. callum smith lost his unbeaten record and super—middleweight world title to saul canelo alvarez. alvarez — widely regarded as one of the best pound for pound boxers on the planet — takes smith's wba belt and the vacant wbc belt.

he won on a unanimous points decision. he himself has only lost once before. and you can find all the details of how to vote for your favourite for the bbc sports personality of the year award. that's on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport. that's all from me for now. now it is your questions answered. welcome to your questions answered. with me to answer your questions is our health correspondentjim reed. also, i'm joined by nicola stonehouse — professor in molecular virology at the university of leeds. welcome to you though. can i start

with you,jim? welcome to you though. can i start with you, jim? let's just look at this one from twitter. it says the prime minister hasjust this one from twitter. it says the prime minister has just announced that tier 3 can meet on christmas day. can another day be planned, such as boxing day? i'm afraid the a nswer such as boxing day? i'm afraid the answer is no, the rules are pretty clear on this. the christmas break in england has been cut from five days down to just a single day, which is december the 23rd, unless you are in a new tier 4 area, in which case the rules are you cannot mix at all. in wales and scotland, slightly different but puts down just to that day of christmas day. in northern ireland, they are retaining the five days with some extra time for travel. peter also mentioned grandchildren. i do not wa nt to mentioned grandchildren. i do not want to second—guess peter's age, but the advice of this is pretty strong. if you are over 70 or clinically vulnerable, you are told

to think very carefully about whether to even meet up on christmas day itself. the advice now is if you are in that group, maybe not to form are in that group, maybe not to form a christmas bubble whatsoever, even on christmas day. so you cannot designate your christmas day outside of the 25th of december? this is from kent via e—mail. how are the rules from london and the south—east, how will they affect ca re south—east, how will they affect care home visiting? will latch flow tests still allow visits —— lateral flow testing. the lateral flow testing isn't perfect. what i would suggest is if you want to go and visit people, self—isolate before you do. self isolating for ten days means that you are very, very unlikely to be able to spread infection. i realise that not everybody can do that but that would

reduce the risks down. jim, it is worth pointing out that even in the tier 4 guidelines, there are exceptions? nicola made good points there. there is one important thing to say there. there is one tier in tier4 to say there. there is one tier in tier 4 compared with tier 3. you can meet someone face—to—face in tier 3 if you have one of those lateral flow tests that proved negative. in tier4, it has flow tests that proved negative. in tier 4, it has to be through a window or in those pods. so face—to—face meeting with someone in a care home in tier4 face—to—face meeting with someone in a care home in tier 4 will not be allowed a care home in tier 4 will not be a llowe d a ny a care home in tier 4 will not be allowed any more. from angela, i meant to travel to wales to visit my family. iam meant to travel to wales to visit my family. i am a single person living, they are in my bubble, can i go perspective this is where it gets complicated because you get rules clashing across nations and mixing up. i had a word with the welsh government before. good news for angela, she would be allowed to cross the border because she is and

what is called a support bubble, but only for christmas day itself and not any more than that. she wouldn't be able to stay overnight. if she is in herefordshire, she would be able to cross the border into wales, say, to cross the border into wales, say, to monmouth, but what gets impossible is if she is in a tier 4 area because many english rules would kick in and you couldn't leave that tier 4 area. professor stonehouse, how is this virus is spreading if we are still wearing masks and washing our hands endlessly? should everyone be made to wear masks outside travelling? would that stop the spread? the spread is by people. people getting together in groups. and the more people, the more risks. the larger the group, the larger the risk. if you are walking past somebody in the street, the chances of spread tend to be very low. the more time spent with people, the more crowds that

you are in even if that is outside, then the risks get higher. being out of doors is really important, and, basically, keeping away as much as possible, so i am afraid, yes, keeping on your own is the most important thing. wearing masks in large gatherings outside could be importantand, large gatherings outside could be important and, for large gatherings outside could be importantand, forsure, large gatherings outside could be important and, for sure, if you feel more comfortable wearing masks when you're walking out and about, do so. some media today has been suggesting that the new variant may even be getting through ppe. is there any evidence to suggest that?” getting through ppe. is there any evidence to suggest that? i don't think there is any evidence to suggest that. i think what we must remember is that viruses change. new variants come and go. and alas so actually with this virus than for some other viruses. —— less so for

this virus. but there seems to have become embedded in the population very quickly. why this is, we don't know yet. there have been lots of different mutations of this original virus? yes, and being able to sequence virus? yes, and being able to sequence and look at those mutations both in the uk and elsewhere in the world, over the last year, that has been really quite important. what has happened here is that these mutations seem to have really become fixed in the population very, very quickly. now, ithink, u nfortu nately, quickly. now, ithink, unfortunately, the fact that london and the south—east was in tier 2 restrictions rather than higher restrictions rather than higher restrictions over the last month hasn't helped that situation. but we are where we are and we absolutely must all do what we possibly can to stop any further spread. jim, it has

been asked, we were having a small family meal on christmas day. now we are in tier4. family meal on christmas day. now we are in tier 4. can we deliver the meals to households provided we don't come into contact with them? within a tier 4 area, the advice is to stay at home with limited exceptions, so things like essential shopping, education, etc. it is whether you could define delivering christmas dinner is one of those reasons. actually giving care is an essential reason, so it depends who you are giving it to. if you are delivering it to someone elderly who wouldn't be able to get it any other way, you could make that argument i think. if you are delivering it to friends whojust think. if you are delivering it to friends who just can't make christmas dinner, then maybe not. friends who just can't make christmas dinner, then maybe notm is very complicated, and difficult to police as well. can you explain how the new strain of the virus is more transmissible? how is it able to be transmitted more readily? i think i have answered this one, how

does it get about the mask? what sort of research has gone into this in terms of the transmission? what we have seen when looking at the sequence we have seen when looking at the sequence of viruses that are being recorded as tests, so positive tests, some of those are being sequenced, and what has been noticed is that this new variant started off asa is that this new variant started off as a very is that this new variant started off as a very small percentage and it has really got more and more and more embedded in the population so that more and more of the positive tests are having these new mutations in them. so it seems, therefore, that this variant is spreading more rapidly, but we don't actually know why that is. we don't have a lot of details on how that is at the current time. and we don't know if it's more deadly? absolutely not,

no, we have no evidence that it causes more serious disease, and, indeed, if it spreads more rapidly, it may not. it could be that when the virus, when you first get infected, the virus replicates at the back of the throat and the back of the nose. and that is indeed where you take a sample for a test, for example. and if the virus replicates and grows much more readily bear, it could be that therefore you are spreading more virus, and you have got more to spread. but that doesn't necessarily mean that the virus would then move down into the lungs were readily where it creates more serious problems. we also have no evidence whatsoever that this will have any effect on vaccines. so people must absolutely go ahead with taking the vaccine if you are offered the vaccine if you are offered the vaccine and please, please don't think that this is going to affect that in anyway. we have much time for one more. can our parents live

in germany travel to the uk to visit us? theoretically, for today, i think this might have been possible. it would have involved juggling involving self isolation periods and tests. the bigger problem is what you have reported this afternoon which is that we are starting to see countries flights to the uk because of the new variant. we have had the netherlands, italy, belgium talking about that today. this is incoming flights to the country, but if you come here, you want to go back at some point. germany is not quite on that list yet, but a german newspaper is already talking that from midnight tonight, these could come in for germany today, tonight. so it might be difficult for malcolm to meet up with his parents. jim reed and professor nicola stonehouse, thank you very much indeed for answering some of those