Boris Johnson announces press conference at 5pm: What the Prime Minister is expected to say

The Prime Minister has offered his “sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones” as the nation prepares for a minute’s silence at midday.

With the official death toll passing 126,172 deaths, Mr Johnson has warned a third wave of Covid-19 cases being seen in France and Italy could “wash up on our shores as well”.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday there are currently no plans to put all of Europe on the travel “red list”, which currently forces British nationals and people who are normally resident in the UK to quarantine in a Government-approved hotel for 10 days.

Mr Hancock, who spoke to his Spanish counterpart on Monday about whether travel could resume safely, told LBC: “We don’t have any plans to do that.

“We do have this red list and the amber list, and at the moment that is working well, so we don’t have plans to do that.”

On Monday, health minister Lord Bethell raised the prospect of having to “red-list all of our European neighbours”, putting plans for holidays abroad in jeopardy.

Mr Hancock said the ban on leaving the UK without a reasonable excuse, included in new coronavirus laws coming into force next week, had not changed the road map plans for international travel.

He told BBC Breakfast that current border measures were protecting the UK from new variants, some of which have been shown to evade a degree of immunity offered by vaccines.

He added: “The question is whether we’ll be able to release any of these measures over the summer.

“I entirely understand people’s yearning to get away and have a summer holiday, and we’re looking at that question right now as part of the global travel taskforce, which will report in the middle of next month.

“The earliest that will take any steps will be May 17 but, obviously, we’re taking a cautious approach because we want any openings that we make to be irreversible.”

He said the Government would only take “steps that we think are safe”.