BORIS JOHNSON held a Downing Street news conference today with chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and the chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty.

Here's what he said: 

  • Plans are being put in place so that students can go home at Christmas 'safely'. 
  • A further 7,108 have tested positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours 
  • 71 people have died in the last day 
  • The UK is on track to be able to conduct 500,000 tests a day 
  • There are 2,000 beds across seven Nightingale Hospitals 
  • The UK has four months of masks, visors and gowns (PPE) stockpiled
  • The 'best way' to keep our children in schools, the economy moving, and the NHS functioning is to follow the rules.
  • Boris is Johnson said: "No matter how fed up we become there is only one way of doing this." He explained that everybody needs to be 'willing to sacrifice' 
  • Stricter measures will be imposed if the cases continue to rise 
  • We must wash our hands, wear a mask and keep 2m apart where possible 
  • 14million people have downloaded the track and trace phone app