Reality Check

Image source, Reuters

Outlining the new system of restrictions, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that in tier three areas, all hospitality must close (apart from delivery and takeaway) and in tier two areas, alcohol may only be served with “substantial meals”.

That’s bad news for so-called “wet” pubs, which are ones that do not serve substantial meals.

The British Beer and Pub Association says they account for two thirds of pubs in England – that’s about 25,000.They will still be allowed to open in tier one.

There’s not been a lot of specific scientific evidence supporting the substantial meal rule, although the Scottish government’s impact assessment has some details., external

It explains that clinicians believe consuming alcohol limits people’s ability to follow coronavirus rules. It says combining drinking with a main meal cuts the effect of the alcohol as well as reducing the volume and speed of consumption.

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We unpick some of this week's misleading claims about the pandemic and the coronavirus vaccine.

Manipulated and false images with no relation to the crisis in Ethiopia are being shared online.

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Reality Check

Boris Johnson was asked about the spread of disinformation by anti-vaccination activists and whether social media companies should be doing more to remove them.

The prime minister said the government would be responding to the consultation on the ‘online harms’ white paper shortly and will be setting out plans for legislation.

News of breakthroughs in coronavirus vaccine development – in recent days – has seen a resurgence in false claims about Covid-19 vaccines – including the baseless conspiracy theory that they’re part of a secret plan (involving the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates) to implant microchips into humans - so they can be tracked.

BBC Reality Check has been investigating this and other vaccine claims here.

Reality Check

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was asked about the National Audit Office investigation into the Covid-related contracts the government has been awarding since the start of the pandemic. A lot of them are for PPE – which covers things like masks, goggles and gowns.

He said: “70% of PPE is now made in this country or capable of being made in this country”

This figure is the government’s target for December rather than the proportion of PPE manufactured in the UK at the moment.

In September, a policy paper published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that UK-based manufacturers are “anticipated to meet 70% of forecasted demand in December for all categories of PPE, excluding gloves”. (Gloves are excluded as raw materials are not available in the UK.)

The target is ambitious, especially because in June, the DHSC said that it was expecting, external that only 20% of all PPE will be manufactured in the UK by the end of the year.

The figure for the proportion of PPE currently made in the UK is not publicly available at the moment.

Northern Ireland will have easier access than the rest of the UK to the EU economy next year.

Reality Check

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has mentioned two new coronavirus testing “mega labs” which he said could increase testing capacity by 600,000 tests a day.

But capacity does not mean actually processing that many tests, just that there is the ability – in theory - to do that many.

For example, on 12 November, there was UK lab capacity for 520,000 tests, but in reality 380,000 tests were processed.

This means labs were running at about 73% of capacity.

The government says on an ideal day they will be working at 85% of capacity, to allow some room if there is a surge in demand for tests.

Reality Check

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was asked at the briefing about advice from the government modelling group SPI-M that suggested returning to the three-tiered system in December risked the R value rising again, and undoing any decline in the rate of new cases achieved during England's lockdown.

Hancock responded that that was not what the scientific advice had said - that it wasn’t just about the tiered system but “also about what measures are in each tier”.

You can read the SPI-M advice here, external.

It says that what happens to the outbreak depends on what measures are taken after 2 December and that: “If England returns to the same application of the tiering system in place before 5 November, then transmission will return to the same rate of increase as today.”

But clearly that allows for the government to introduce a different application of the tiering system, having different restrictions in each of the tiers than it had before the second lockdown.

President Trump has challenged the integrity of a widely used electronic voting system.

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Reality Check

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford asked the prime minister about people who he said had been excluded from coronavirus financial assistance.

“Another group who have been left behind by the prime minister are the three million people who have been completely excluded from UK government support,” he said.

The three million figure, which was also referred to by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, appears to comes from a group called Excluded UK, which provides a breakdown of the figure.

The biggest group they cite is the 1.175 million people who earn less than 50% of their income from self-employment and so are not eligible for the support provided for the self-employed.

But it means that group receives at least half of their income from working as an employee, and that work would make some of them potentially eligible for support from government schemes such as the furlough scheme.

So while such people would not get as much of their income replaced as workers who are entirely employed or wholly self-employed, it is not right to say that they have been “completely excluded”.

This post was updated to clarify that some people would not qualify for either scheme because – for example - they’ve recently switched from being employed to self-employed.

Reality Check

In response to a question about government contracts awarded to private firms for personal protective equipment (PPE) against coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:“This government has secured and delivered 32 billion items of personal protective equipment.”

He added that the government has to work with the private sector and that some are more effective than others.

The 32 billion figure, which the PM quoted, refers to the number of PPE items which have been ordered, according to the government’s latest PPE strategy document from 28 September, external.

The National Audit Office (NAO) says, external it is looking into the government procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic as “concerns have been raised” about some of them “including around a lack of transparency”. The NAO will report its findings in late 2020.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) says, external 4.6 billion PPE items have been distributed to GPs, social care providers, community pharmacists, dentists and hospices, from February to 1 November 2020.

The government worked with over 15,000 suppliers.

The PPE includes masks, gloves, eye protection, aprons and coveralls but also cleaning equipment, general purpose detergent and hand hygiene items.

You can read more here on PPE supply in the NHS.

We've been looking at examples of online misinformation about the hostilities in Ethiopia's Tigray region.

Reality Check

Image source, Getty Images

At a recent press conference in Philadelphia, Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, accused the Democratic-leaning city of having a long history of voter fraud.

He claimed that noted Philadelphia residents were voting long after they died.

“Joe Frazier”, the world champion boxer who died in 2011, “is still voting here”, said Mr Giuliani.

He went on to say that actor Will Smith’s late father “has voted here twice since he died.”

We contacted the Philadelphia city government, and were told both claims were false.

The city’s Law Department checked their voter files and found that “neither is registered nor active” and that Joe Frazier did not vote after he passed away.

The case of Mr Smith Snr is a bit more complicated. We were told that ahead of elections in the city in 2016, he sent in an absentee ballot and then died one day prior to the election.

According to the Philadelphia city government, the 2016 election code allowed these votes to be counted. There is no record of Smith Snr having voted after this.

It’s not clear where this story came from originally, but an article about Mr Frazier and Mr Smith appeared in a pro-Trump blog on 6 November. The author claimed to have seen records not publicly accessible.

[This post was amended after publication. The original statement the Philadelphia city government provided to us referred to a 2017 election. "It should have said 2016 ... Please understand that folks are very, very tired," they said when we queried it.]

As the vote was counted in the remaining battleground states, unsubstantiated rumours spread about voting fraud.

Reality Check

President Trump tweeted this last night – let’s take a look at each of the claims in it.

Claim one: “THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS”

Poll watchers were allowed to observe the counting in most states although they generally needed to be registered in advance.

There was a video showing a certified poll watcher being turned away from a polling station in Philadelphia, but as we reported this was due to confusion about the rules and he was later allowed in.

Hundreds of poll watchers were admitted to counts across the country.

Claim two: “I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES”

He has won almost 71 million votes, but that has not been enough to win the election. Joe Biden received over 74 million and more importantly won enough states to take the presidency.

Claim three: “BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE”

President Trump has offered no evidence for this.

Claim four: “MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!”

Registered voters in nine states and Washington DC were sent mail-in ballots without having to ask for them.Only one of those states – Nevada – ended up with a contentious result.

There are safeguards for all postal voting – you can read more about it here.