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Boris Johnson will hold a press conference today, which is expected to focus on the growth of the UK testing regime.
It comes after the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that its coronavirus vaccine candidate has been 90 percent effective in large-scale trials.
The UK is slated to receive 10 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year, if approved by regulators.
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More than 150,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past seven days, a slight decrease from the previous week.
However, over the weekend, the total number of coronavirus deaths in the county topped 60,000.
What time is Boris Johnson’s press conference today?
The prime minister will address the nation at 5 p.m. tonight, No. 10 confirmed.
He will make the announcement from Downing Street.
How can I watch it live?
The press conference will be broadcast live on this page.
What is it expected to announce?
Johnson is expected to focus primarily on the UK testing regime, which has been growing rapidly since late October.
The UK now has the capacity to run around half a million tests a day, double the figure at the beginning of October.
On November 5, just over 344,000 tests were processed, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
Johnson aims to introduce massive tests in the UK. Rehearsals for the program are currently underway in Liverpool and Salford.
There is hope that the improved testing will allow the travel industry to reopen.
Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps has said that the government’s global travel task force is making “very good progress” in developing a testing regime that will reduce the 14-day quarantine period for international arrivals.
The prime minister is also likely to mention the Pfizer vaccine, of which the UK has ordered 40 million doses.
His trials have been far more successful than experts predicted, he emerged today.
Regulators have said they would approve a vaccine that is 50 percent effective, so the reported 90 percent could end the pandemic in sight.
“Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our phase three trial of the Covid-19 vaccine provides initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent Covid-19, ”said Dr. Albert Bourla, President and CEO of Pfizer.
