Boris Johnson, England Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson are all set to make major announcements this afternoon.

The Prime Minister will speak to the nation live from Downing Street after a frenetic day with announcements on Brexit, new tiers, school reopenings and a vaccine.

It comes amid calls for national Tier 4 lockdown and increasing pressure to keep the schools shut in face of the new strain of Covid.

Mr Hancock will be the first up, with a statement to the House of Commons scheduled for 3pm, which is expected to see millions of people in England moved into Tier 4.

The Health Secretary spent the morning speaking to media after the Oxford/AstraZeneca covid-19 coronavirus vaccine was cleared for use in the UK. Mr Hancock said Britain can “get out of” the coronavirus pandemic “by spring”, after the crucial vaccine breakthrough.

However, scientists say England needs an immediate third national lockdown – and warned delaying another shutdown would result in “tens of thousands of deaths”.

Independent Sage said the country is entering the worst moment of the Covid-19 crisis and putting off another lockdown would result in “catastrophe”.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will be the next up, with a statement to MPs in the Commons at 4pm this afternoon about the return of schools in England in January.

The Government has come under increasing pressure over the past few days to keep the schools shut in face of the new strain of Covid.

Mr Hancock earlier today told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The Education Secretary will be setting out his proposals later today. Clearly we want to protect education as much as possible.

“But the new variant does make it much easier for this disease to transmit. So we are going to protect education as much as we can.”

And now Downing Street has announced that Boris Johnson will make a live statement to the nation at a Downing Street press conference at 5pm today.

He is likely to restate the major announcements in the House of Commons on tiers at 3pm and schools at 4pm.