Boris Johnson to hold Downing Street coronavirus press conference amid vaccine hopes

Downing Street has confirmed the Prime Minister will speak from Number Ten at 5pm.

He will be joined by deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam and Brigadier Joe Fossey, of the Royal Engineering Corps at the Downing Street press conference, No 10 said.

The Corps has been conducting a mass virus testing pilot scheme in Liverpool.

On Friday, queues built up outside the new test centres which opened at midday, with people waiting around 45 minutes outside the Liverpool Tennis Centre – one of the six facilities – before it opened.

The programme aims to test up to 50,000 people a day once fully operational.

READ MORE: Who will be in line to get Covid vaccine first as study finds jab is ‘90% effective in preventing the disease’

Today’s press conference comes as England enters day five of its second national lockdown, which began on Thursday, and as hopes grow that an effective vaccine could be available soon.

A new jab from Pfizer has been found to be more than 90% effective.

The pharmaceutical giant and its partner BioNTech said interim results showed their jab could prevent people developing Covid-19.

Dr Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and chief executive, said: “Today is a great day for science and humanity.”

The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised.

Downing Street welcomed the results as “promising” and said the UK will have procured 10 million doses by the end of the year to be given out if it is approved.

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