Boris Johnson has imposed a third national lockdown on England and shut schools to most pupils to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed by surging coronavirus infections.
In a televised address to the nation on Monday night, the Prime Minister told the nation to stay indoors other than for limited exceptions, with measures expected to last until mid-February.
And the Prime Minister bowed to significant pressure to order primary schools, secondaries and colleges to move to remote teaching for the majority of students from Tuesday.
Mr Johnson’s statement came after the chief medical officers for the first time raised the UK to the highest level on the Covid-19 alert system.
They warned the NHS is at risk of being overwhelmed within 21 days “in several areas” without further action.
Speaking in a televised address to the nation the Prime Minister said it was clear that "we need to do more together to bring the new variant under control".
Under the new rules schools will close for all but the children of key workers with lessons switching to online learning.
By law you can only leave home for limited reasons including exercise, essential shopping, and to escape domestic violence.
People who are clinically vulnerable and who were previously told to shield should stay at home and only leave for medical appointments and exercise.
Mr Johnson said there would be a timelag of two to three weeks for vaccinations to grant immunity.
Figures show there were 26,626 Covid patients in hospital in England on January 4, an increase of over 30% compared to seven days earlier.
We are now 40% above the highest level of the first wave.
Across the UK, there were 80,664 positive tests on December 29 and a further 65,571 on December 30.
The case rate in England up to December 30 was over 518 per 100,000 - three times the level we were at at the start of December when it was 151.3 on December 1.
“As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from Covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic,” Mr Johnson said.
He said that the weeks ahead would be the “hardest yet” but added that he believed the country was entering “the last phase of the struggle”.
Mr Johnson said the Government is again instructing people to stay at home.
He said: “You may only leave home for limited reasons permitted in law, such as to shop for essentials, to work if you absolutely cannot work from home, to exercise, to seek medical assistance such as getting a Covid test, or to escape domestic abuse.”
He advised people to visit gov.uk/coronavirus for the full details of what people can and cannot do.
