The Prime Minister will address the nation after a dramatic surge in case numbers over the Christmas holidays. He will be joined by England's chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

       There are currently more than one million Britons in isolation after testing positive in the past week and hospitalisations have ramped up over the festive period too.

       More than 1,000 people have been admitted to hospital every day since December 19.

       However, the total number of people on NHS wards with Covid currently stands at over 14,000 - far lower than the peak 39,254 in January 2021.

       Mr Johnson has been receiving daily updates on the latest data after refusing the cave to pressure to introduce extra restrictions to combat the Omicron variant surging across the country.

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       While Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all announced new rules before Christmas, the Prime Minister said there was not enough evidence to support such measures for England.

       He met with senior ministers earlier today to consider the latest findings and whether now is the time to go further with extra restrictions.

       A number of hospital trusts have warned they risk being overwhelmed due to a rise in new admissions and staff shortages related to the virus.

       In the NHS, 110,000 staff were off sick on New Year’s Eve with almost 50,000 cases due to Covid.

       Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said this morning that the staffing situation in hospitals is "almost impossible" as leaders try to manage their resources.

       He told Times Radio that, for many, "the most pressing element of all" is the number of staff who are absent due to Covid.

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       Meanwhile, Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said at least "half a dozen" NHS hospitals have declared a critical incident as they try to respond to Covid.

       Yesterday, Mr Johnson pledged to "make sure that we look after our NHS any way that we can" as it grapples with the virus.

       "There's no question Omicron continues to surge through the country," he said.

       "I think we've got to recognise that the pressure on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks, and maybe more."

       However, in a sign he is unlikely to introduce new restrictions, Mr Johnson said: "The way forward for the country as a whole is to continue with the path that we are on.

       "Of course we will keep all measures under review, but the mixture of things that we are doing at the moment is I think the right one."

       Speaking today, his official spokesman added: "At the moment we don't see any data to suggest that further restrictions would be the right approach, given we know it is important to strike the right balance between protecting lives and livelihoods.

       "There are significant mitigations in place for our NHS to help them in what's going to be a very challenging winter."