Hospitality venues are being restricted to take away only in Bolton as part of new measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the town, Matt Hancock has announced.
Under the new rules all venues, including pubs, will be required to close from 10pm until 5am.
With 120 cases per 100,000, Bolton has seen the highest case rate in the country.
“The rise in cases in Bolton is partly due to socialising by people in their 20s and 30s, we know this from contact tracing,” Hancock told MPs on Tuesday.
Visitor restrictions will also be put in place in Bolton care homes.
The health secretary took the decision as the number of coronavirus cases spiked across the UK.
Hancock warned that “just because we’ve come through one peak, it does not mean we cannot see another one coming”.
There were a further 2,948 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Monday, following the 2,988 reported on Sunday, which was the largest daily figure since May.
It has been reported that officials are considering reducing the number of people who can gather indoors in England. The current limit is 30 but it could be cut as a result of the current rise in cases.
Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, has warned the public to take the pandemic seriously again or face “a bumpy ride over the next few months”.
“People have relaxed too much,” he said on Monday evening. “Now is the time for us to re-engage and realise that this is a continuing threat to us.”
David Nabarro, the World Health Organisation’s special envoy for the global Covid-19 response, told Sky News on Tuesday a second wave “is coming” for the UK.
“It’s just been lurking. We’ve been very good at holding it back,” he said. “But now, as life gets going again, as young people go to university and there’s some movement around with holidays and work, I’m afraid it does mean the virus is going to come back.”
On Tuesday morning Hancock admitted will take “weeks” to fix problems with the UK’s coronavirus testing capacity.