London Elevated to Tier 3 COVID-19 Restrictions, Cinemas Set to Close Again

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London and some other parts of the U.K. are going into the highest level of COVID-19 restrictions from midnight on Tuesday. U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock is set to confirm the government’s plans this afternoon.

The restrictions mean that indoor entertainment venues, including cinemas and theaters, will have to close. The rules deal a severe blow to the highly anticipated release of “Wonder Woman 1984,” which is due to open across the U.K. on Wednesday (Dec. 16). Cinema chains such as Vue will have been open for just five days since emerging from the most recent lockdown on Dec. 11.

Responding to the Tier 3 status, the U.K. Cinema Association said its members with sites in the capital “will be devastated by today’s decision.”

“Like those in the rest of the country, cinemas in the capital have worked extraordinarily hard to safeguard audiences and staff alike. It is worth stating again that, as a result, not a single case of COVID has been traced back to a U.K. cinema. Yet those sites will be required to close when non-essential retail — where safeguarding measures are undoubtedly less exacting — will be allowed to remain open,” said Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UKCA.

Clapp reasons that while retailers in major malls like the Westfield centres will be packed with shoppers, “the socially-distanced and air-conditioned cinema sites in those shopping centres will be required to remain closed.”

He concluded: “The decision is of course all the more heart-breaking in that it comes in the week that ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ — only the second major title since March — is released into U.K. cinemas.”

Elsewhere, film and TV production was allowed to continue during the last lockdown and that status is not expected to change.

Sports will continue, but behind closed doors, and without audiences. Bars, pubs and restaurants will also have to close, but can operate as takeaways.

Some 4,710 people in London tested on Dec. 11 were positive for COVID-19 — almost double the number from a week ago. London recorded 225 new cases per 100,000 in the seven days to Dec. 8, climbing every day since a lockdown low of 155 per 100,000 on Nov. 26.

Meanwhile, the wide rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine continues across the U.K. Last week, tens of thousands of people were vaccinated in hospitals. From Monday afternoon, U.K. time, the vaccine has begun being deployed in neighborhood surgeries.

More to come.