Health Secretary Matt Hancock is set to make a statement about coronavirus this afternoon as the June 21 unlocking date hangs in the balance.
Mr Hancock will speak in the House of Commons at around 3:30pm to update MPs on the latest developments in the fight against covid.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will also make a statement on "education recovery" following the pandemic.
Mr Hancock hinted that the June 21 unlocking could be delayed as he spoke on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday.
The Health Secretary, pressed on whether the June 21 removal of restrictions could be postponed if the Indian variant data “gets bad”, said: “We are absolutely open to doing that if that’s what needs to happen.
“We said in the road map that June 21 is the date by which we would not take Step 4 before that date and that we would look at the data.
“That is exactly what we are doing, so the road map was set up in order to be able to take these sort of changes into account.”
Today Sir David King, the former chief scientific adviser to the Government and chair of the Independent Sage Group, said ministers should announce a delay to stage four of the roadmap and the easing of all covid restrictions.
He told Sky News: "The number of people in our hospitals, which the Government says is relatively stable, it's 932 per day going into hospital, which is up 65 from last week. It's not actually stable, it is slowly rising.
"What all of this means is that intensive care is needed for a significant proportion of our population today.
"I'm very reluctant to say that we should not go out of lockdown on June 21, but I think the figures are in now, and it will be wise for the Government to announce right away a delay in opening, just so that we can all plan for the post June 21 period. "
Asked for how long, he said: "I would give a few weeks' delay and see how the fingers are emerging.
"So, I don't know how long.
"As the Prime Minister has said, it's data, not dates, that we should be governed by, and that's response as well."
