The UK has been moved to the highest covid alert level ahead of Boris Johnson's announcement tonight.
The country is now at level 5 or red on the alert scale which means there is a "material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed".
The alert level is based on a recommendation by the Joint Biosecurity Centre to the four chief medical officers.
On the scale when level 5 measures are in place it usually means there is a lockdown imposed.
Under level 5 measures "extremely strict social distancing" should be in place.
Tonight Boris Johnson is set to address the nation at 8pm following the "rapidly escalating" numbers of infections following the emergence of the new variant.
The statement will be followed by the recall of Parliament on Wednesday so MPs can debate the measures.
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."
The move comes as Nicola Sturgeon announced Scotland 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.
Today the Government said a further 407 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, bringing the UK total to 75,431.
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Separate figures published by the UK's statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 91,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
The Government said that, as of 9am on Monday, there had been a further 58,784 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 2,713,563.
The figures do not represent results from the whole UK due to data on deaths not being reported by Scotland on Monday.
Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England, said: "The continuous rise in cases and deaths should be a bitter warning for us all.
"We must not forget the basics - the lives of our friends and family depend on it.
"Keep your distance from others, wash your hands and wear a mask. This virus will transmit wherever you let your guard down."
