Boris Johnson will lead a Downing Street press conference today, Number 10 has said.
The Prime Minister will be joined by England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, and NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens.
It is due to take place at 5pm.
It comes after Mr Johnson and senior ministers convened for the “Covid Operations” committee on Tuesday to discuss, among other things, proposals for quarantine hotels.
Under the plans, passengers arriving in England from high-risk coronavirus hotspots would be made to quarantine in hotels to limit the spread of new Covid variants.
Earlier, Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi warned that the country needs to be “very careful” as new strains emerge. He said an announcement on the quarantine plans would be made later.
Home Secretary Priti Patel declined to comment on “speculation” about quarantine hotels as she answered an urgent question in the Commons.
But she said the Government “will not hesitate to take further action” to protect the UK from new strains, and said “measures are always under review”.
Meanwhile, Mr Zahawi said he was “confident” that the Pfizer vaccine supply would continue, despite the European Union threatening to impose tight controls on the export of coronavirus jabs made in the bloc.
The Government is also under pressure from Tory MPs to set out a timetable for pupils to return to classrooms, which are currently only open to vulnerable children and those whose parents are key workers.
Mr Johnson has been unable to guarantee that they would be permitted to return before Easter.
