Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold a press conference this evening as pressure continues to build after the discovery a new Covid strain is up to 70 per cent more infectious.
The PM was joined by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance at Number Ten.
The Covid-19 briefing came at 5pm and came as tye Government said a further 215 people had died.
The patients passed away within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, bringing the UK total to 67,616.
It said that, as of 9am on Sunday, there had been a further 33,364 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.
It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 2,073,511.
The Prime Minister tonight confirmed he chaired a meeting of Cobra after France closed its borders.
It’s vital to stress these delays only affect human handled freight, that is only 20 per cent of that arriving from or departing to the continent.
“We’ve reduced the number of queuing lorries from 500 to 170,” he says.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a Downing Street press conference on the coronavirus crisis and blockages at Dover: “We are working with our friends across the Channel to unblock the flow of trade as fast as possible.
“And the Government at all levels is communicating with our friends in Paris.
“I have just spoken to President Macron, we had a very good call.
“And we both understand each other’s positions and want to resolve these problems as fast as possible.”
Don’t stockpile
Mr Johnson confirmed he has just spoken to President Macron and says they are ‘working to a solution’.
The PM understands ‘our friends anxieties’ and says risks of solitary drivers sitting alone are ‘very low’.
Mr Johnson added that supermarket supplies are robust so we can ‘continue to shop normally’.
Vaccine update
More than 500,000 people have received their first dose of the pandemic, UK prime minister Boris Johnson said.
Mr Johnson added the virus is ‘steadily being defeated by an international response’.
Mr Johnson said: “We want to work with our colleagues, with our friends around the world, as we have from the beginning, to develop new treatments, to develop new vaccines, as we have.”
