British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Monday impose a tiered system of further restrictions on parts of England as the COVID-19 outbreak accelerates, though anger is rising at the cost of the stringent curtailment of freedoms.

Johnson has chaired an emergency response committee, known as a COBRA meeting.

Johnson’s three-tiered local lockdowns will include shutting bars, gyms, casinos and bookmakers in some areas placed into the “very high” alert level, probably across the north of England, British media reported.

“Pretty much all areas of the UK are now seeing growths in the infection rate,” England Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam told reporters. “The epidemic, this time, has clearly picked up pace in the north of England earlier than it did in the first wave.”

NHS Nightingale hospitals put on standby in Manchester, Sunderland and Harrogate as UK Covid admissions rise.

More people now in hospital with Covid than before March lockdown, says NHS medical director Stephen Powis.