Greater Manchester will move into the UK’s “very high” Covid-19 alert level, announced Prime Minister Boris Johnson, marking the conclusion of an 11-day standoff between the UK government and local leaders in England’s third-largest city area.

“I do regret this,” said Johnson during the 20 October televised press conference. Johnson added that the government had made “a generous and extensive offer to support businesses” in the region, saying that it was “proportionate to that which was received by Lancashire and Merseyside”.