ENGLAND is currently in its third lockdown which means people are only able to leave their house for essential activities.

This includes buying groceries or to provide care to another person.

Non-essential retail has also closed.

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As a result, Reading's once bustling town centre looks very different.

Scroll through our gallery to see what the town looks like during lockdown.

Pictures show there is hardly anybody inside The Oracle shopping centre and there are also very few people walking along the usually bustling Broad Street.

Non-essential shops are closed and some still have Christmas decorations in the windows as they haven't opened since the holidays. 

Reading Chronicle: Reading town centre during lockdown

As you walk along Broad Street there are signs on lamposts telling people to keep apart.

Outside shops there are also queuing spots telling people to stay two metres apart.

A total of 9,110 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Reading. 

The number of people from Reading who have Covid-19 listed on their death certificate is 224. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned the Government is still a “long, long, long way off” being able to lift lockdown restrictions in England.

Three quarters of people over the age of 80 have now been vaccinated with Mr Hancock saying the vaccination programme was making “brilliant progress”.

READ MORE:Matt Hancock: Lifting lockdown is still a 'long, long, long way' off

Despite saying there was clear evidence to suggest lockdown restrictions were working the health secretary said that case numbers were still “incredibly high”.

“There is early evidence that the lockdown is starting to bring cases down but we are a long, long, long way from being low enough because the case rate was incredibly high,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.