Responding to the health and social care secretary Matt Hancock's announcement on COVID tiers, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said:

"As we move away from a national lockdown, we welcome the news that the restrictions on social contact in place across the country will be appropriately robust.

"We welcome the introduction of a more robust tiered system, with uniform rules and a rapid semi-automatic decision making process which we trust will avoid the dangerous delays in restricting social contact we saw in September / October. These delays undoubtedly increased the amount of virus spread we have seen over the last few weeks.

We cannot afford complacency, and we need the government to keep a really close eye on local spikes of COVID-19.

"However we cannot afford complacency, and we need the government to keep a really close eye on local spikes of COVID-19. As soon as it looks like an area should move up a tier, the government must act promptly to do so. And we must continue to monitor whether the highest tier is effective enough. We also remain concerned about the impact of the planned limited relaxation of the rules over the Christmas period.

"While we understand that tough restrictions on social contact place a continuing burden on the public, and come with great sacrifices, we must ensure that the NHS has the capacity it needs to look after everyone who needs care.

We simply cannot afford to let our guard down. If we do, the virus will just flare back up again.

"As we head into winter the NHS is entering its busiest period of the year with the additional challenges of COVID-19 and handling a significant care backlog. We simply cannot afford to let our guard down. If we do, the virus will just flare back up again as it has done in the second wave.

"There is good reason to believe that if the measures remain appropriately tough, and we stick to them, the situation will look very different in the late Spring and early Summer when the combination of vaccines, mass scale rapid turnaround testing and therapeutic drugs offer a way out of our current COVID-19 problems. But we have to get over the hump of winter first."