The number of deaths is up by 20% over the last week and will sadly rise further.

And my thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones.

With most of the country already under extreme measures, it's clear that we need to doom or together to bring this new variant under control.

While our vaccines are rolled out in England, we must therefore go into a national lock down, which is tough enough to contain this variant.

That means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home.

You may only leave home for limited reasons permitted in law, such as to shop for essentials to work if you absolutely cannot work from home to exercise to seek medical assistance, such as getting a coded test or to escape domestic abuse, primary schools, secondary schools and colleges across England must move to remote permit provisions from tomorrow, except for vulnerable Children and the Children of key workers, everyone will still be able to access earlier settings such as nurseries, the weeks ahead will be the hardest yet.

But I really do believe that we're entering the last phase of the struggle because with every jab that goes into our arms were tilting the odds against co vid on in favor of the British people.