I heard (on the BBC so it must be true), that the sparsely populated Northumberland asked to be included with the other NE areas under the new restrictions as, despite having relatively few cases, many people from the county work in the other 6 newly restricted areas.

Ok, if that's true, then there must be even more people in the densely populated neighbouring authorities to the south of the region, such as the unitary authorities of Darlington, Middlesbrough, Stockton etc, who also have inhabitants working in Newcastle, Sunderland, North and South Tyneside, Gateshead and County Durham. It doesn't make sense (if theses new restrictions really are needed) not to included these areas too. Can anyone understand the logic of these decisions?