Boris Johnson will hold a press conference about the current coronavirus situation in the UK amid reports of a possible national lockdown in England.
The Prime Minister is expected to hold a briefing at Downing Street at 5pm today alongside chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
The announcement of the statement came as several newspapers reported that a nationwide lockdown could be imposed in England within days, and could last until the beginning of December.
Everything except essential shops and education settings could be closed under the new measures, the paper said, but no final decisions are believed to have been made. Tougher regional measures are also being considered.
Mr Johnson has so far resisted pressure from scientists and Labour to introduce a “circuit-breaker” to curb Covid-19 cases, but he is facing fresh calls after new data showed the extent of cases across England.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey found cases “continued to rise steeply” in the week ending October 23, with an estimated 568,100 people in households becoming infected.
Scientific advisers at the top of Government believe it is now too late for a two-week national circuit-breaker to have enough of an effect and a longer national lockdown is needed to drive the reproduction number, or R value, of the virus below one.
All parts of England are on course to eventually end up in Tier 3 restrictions, they believe, while deaths could potentially hit 500 per day within weeks.
Government scientists are also confident that more than 50,000 new cases of coronavirus are now occurring every day in England.
It comes as official documents released by the Government showed that a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meeting on October 8 said the number of infections and hospital admissions is “exceeding the reasonable worst-case scenario planning levels at this time”.
