Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a televised address tonight outlining the steps to tackle the rise in coronavirus cases, with Parliament set to be recalled to sit on Wednesday, Downing Street has said.
In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon announced the nation will go into lockdown for the rest of January with a legal requirement to stay at home and schools closed to most pupils until February.
Setting out the measures to come into force from Tuesday, the First Minister told MSPs in Holyrood: "It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year."
Mr Johnson will address the nation at 8pm tonight.
A No 10 spokesman said: "The spread of the new variant of Covid-19 has led to rapidly escalating case numbers across the country.
"The Prime Minister is clear that further steps must now be taken to arrest this rise and to protect the NHS and save lives.
"He will set those out this evening."
The Government hopes the arrival of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine - which was injected into the first recipients on Monday as part of the national rollout - will change the course of the fight against coronavirus.
But the Prime Minister warned there would be "tough" weeks to come as cases continue to surge.
The latest data show a 41% rise in the number of confirmed coronavirus patients in hospital in England between Christmas Day and January 3, figures which have caused alarm in Whitehall and the health service.
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"If you look at the numbers there's no question we will have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing those in due course," Mr Johnson said during a visit to Chase Farm Hospital in north London.
With 78% of England's population already under the toughest current restrictions, ministers are examining how successful the Tier 4 measures - which came into force for the first time on December 20 - have been.
