By New Health Secretary to update on lifting restrictions later today.
Sajid Javid will update MPs later on when the Covid measures will be lifted in England.
The ministerial statement about coronavirus restrictions is expected in the House of Commons at about 15:30 BST.
Mr Javid takes over from Matt Hancock, who resigned on Saturday for breaching social distancing guidance.
In a statement to the Commons, the new health secretary is expected to confirm that step 4 of lockdown easing will take place on Monday 19 July – in line with the four-week delay from the original target, 21 June – and not Monday 5 July.
Reports say Boris Johnson will probably keep restrictions in place for an extra month due to the rise in Covid cases primarily down to the Delta variant.
Yesterday’s update showed that another 14,876 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the UK.
That is an increase of 5,592 on the total for the previous Sunday, and the total number of new cases over the past seven days is up 59% on the total for the previous week.
Danny Lawson/PA
In an interview with the Andrew Marr Show, Sir Peter Horby, chair of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said it would be a mistake for the government to lift all remaining restrictions on 5 July.
Asked if he would be wise for the government to bring forward the date for final lockdown easing from 19 July, Horby replied: “No, I wouldn’t do that.
“I think it was a very sensible move to put it back by four weeks and I don’t think we should rush into anything. We really want to make sure that we can release all restrictions and not have to backtrack at all.”
