BORIS Johnson will lead a Covid conference today along with England's chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty.

The pair will be joined by chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance when they go before the press at 5pm.

This comes after multiple hospitals declared critical incidents due to staff shortages caused by coronavirus.

Nationally, cases have been on the rise since October of last year and just yesterday, 136,228 new cases were reported.

The situation in Southampton is much the same. See the latest data for the city by clicking here.

It is unclear what will be announced this evening, but Prime Minister is said to be against imposing further restrictions with current Plan B rules and the booster jab rollout said to be “working”.

Mr Johnson will likely provide an update on the vaccine rollout and once again urge people to get the jab.

Where to watch?

The press conference will be broadcast on BBC, ITV, Sky News and other major news channels. It will also be available to stream on social media.