Watch live as Boris Johnson leads Covid briefing amid India variant warnings

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, are to deliver a televised briefing on the coronavirus, as concerns rise over a Covid variant first detected in India. The conference comes just three days before England reaches step three of the roadmap for lifting lockdown restrictions - with pubs and restaurants able to serve customers indoors and families allowed to hug. The number of cases of the so-called Indian variant has more than doubled in a week, from 520 to 1,313.