<p>Britain needs to tighten restrictions in some areas of the country to tackle the rapid spread of a new variant of the coronavirus after case numbers surged in recent weeks, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday.</p>.<p>Cases of Covid-19 have risen sharply in Britain in recent weeks, fuelled by a new and more transmissible variant of the virus. On Sunday there were nearly 55,000 new cases and in total more than 75,000 people in the country have died with Covid-19 during the pandemic — the second-highest toll in Europe.</p>.<p>England is currently divided into four different tiers of restrictions, depending on the prevalence of the virus, and Hancock said the rules in some parts of the country in Tier 3 were clearly not working.</p>.<p>"There is very worrying data that shows the virus continues to spread," he told BBC TV.</p>.<p>"We can see that in some of the Tier 3 areas cases are rising sharply so clearly more action - as the prime minister said - is going to be needed."</p>.<p>"The new variant of this disease transmits from person to person so much easier than the old one."</p>.<p>Asked on Sky News if the government was considering imposing a new national lockdown, he answered: "We don't rule anything out."</p>.<p>The government has spent the year trying to balance the need to shut down the country to contain the virus without hammering the economy.</p>.<p>The first national coronavirus lockdown in May last year prompted a 25 per cent drop in economic output - unprecedented in modern records - leaving Britain's economy harder hit by the pandemic than most others.</p>.<p>While the economy recovered partially in the third quarter, renewed lockdown measures threaten to cause a double-dip recession at the start of 2021.</p>
<p>Britain needs to tighten restrictions in some areas of the country to tackle the rapid spread of a new variant of the coronavirus after case numbers surged in recent weeks, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday.</p>.<p>Cases of Covid-19 have risen sharply in Britain in recent weeks, fuelled by a new and more transmissible variant of the virus. On Sunday there were nearly 55,000 new cases and in total more than 75,000 people in the country have died with Covid-19 during the pandemic — the second-highest toll in Europe.</p>.<p>England is currently divided into four different tiers of restrictions, depending on the prevalence of the virus, and Hancock said the rules in some parts of the country in Tier 3 were clearly not working.</p>.<p>"There is very worrying data that shows the virus continues to spread," he told BBC TV.</p>.<p>"We can see that in some of the Tier 3 areas cases are rising sharply so clearly more action - as the prime minister said - is going to be needed."</p>.<p>"The new variant of this disease transmits from person to person so much easier than the old one."</p>.<p>Asked on Sky News if the government was considering imposing a new national lockdown, he answered: "We don't rule anything out."</p>.<p>The government has spent the year trying to balance the need to shut down the country to contain the virus without hammering the economy.</p>.<p>The first national coronavirus lockdown in May last year prompted a 25 per cent drop in economic output - unprecedented in modern records - leaving Britain's economy harder hit by the pandemic than most others.</p>.<p>While the economy recovered partially in the third quarter, renewed lockdown measures threaten to cause a double-dip recession at the start of 2021.</p>