Prime Minister Boris Johnson to hold Downing Street press conference at 5pm

Boris Johnson will be addressing the nation at 5pm tonight (Monday, November 9) after the first weekend of new lockdown restrictions passed.

It comes after pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced its coronavirus vaccine candidate is more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 during a major trial.

The firm, which is developing the mRNA-based vaccine with BioNTech, said the results were from a independent interim analysis of the results of its phase three clinical study.

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

"The first set of results from our phase three Covid-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent Covid-19.

“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development programme at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.

“With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis.

"We look forward to sharing additional efficacy and safety data generated from thousands of participants in the coming weeks.”

Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading, said the Pfizer trial data shows “really impressive protection and no reported adverse events”.

There have been just over 65,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK, the latest government figures show.

A total of 61,498 deaths have so far been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, according to reports published last week by the Office for National Statistics, the National Records of Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

But since those figures were compiled, a further 3,191 deaths are known to have occurred in England, plus 77 in Scotland, 209 in Wales and 49 in Northern Ireland, according to additional data published on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard.

Therefore in total, there have been 65,024 deaths involving Covid-19 that have taken place in the UK since the pandemic first hit back in March.

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