Changes have been made to the Tier system for people in England.
Matt Hancock announced on Wednesday that more of the East and South East of England will be move into Tier 4.
This is a new, lockdown-style, alert level first introduced by the Prime Minister on Saturday after a new strain of coronavirus was identified as causing cases to rise in London and the South East.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Mr Hancock saids Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, those parts of Essex not yet in Tier 4, Waverley in Surrey and Hampshire including Portsmouth and Southampton but with the exception of the New Forest will all be escalated to Tier 4.
He also outlined areas of England moving up to higher tiers.
"Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset including the North Somerset council area, Swindon, the Isle of Wight, the New Forest and Northamptonshire as well as Chesire and Warrington will all be escalated to Tier 3, Mr Hancock said.
"And I'm afraid that Cornwall and Herefordshire have seen sharply rising rates and need to be escalated to Tier 2."
The latest announcement means an additional six million people will be in Tier 4 - increasing the total to 24 million people, or 43% of the population of England.
The changes will come into force from 00.01 on Boxing Day (December 26).
Mr Hancock said that while the three-tier system worked to control the old variant and "is working now in large parts of the country especially in northern England," he added that Tier 3 is not enough to control the new variant.
He warned Covid-19 is spreading at a "dangerous rate" across large parts of England and it is "absolutely vital that we act."
