THE Prime Minister is to hold a coronavirus press briefing at 5pm following concerns over the spread of the Indian variant.

It is understood that Boris Johnson is to address the nation on whether the next stage of the road map, due to commence on Monday, will go ahead as planned.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said he will be joined by England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty.

It comes after concerns were raised over the spread of the Indian variant of the Coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly through the North West.

Yesterday the Government said they are not ruling out the possibility of locking down individual towns and boroughs in response to the spread.

Over concerns about the rising number of cases of the Indian variant of Covid-19 cases in Bolton and Blackburn, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC he could not exclude the possibility of regional lockdowns.

He said: “We rule nothing out. We have all seen last year what might be necessary but at the moment our goal is to tackle this through making sure that everyone who tests positive gets enhanced contact tracing and of course the vaccine programme is given a high level of protection across the board.”

Updates to follow.