Health News at Your Fingertips

Johnson says the government is reviewing the circumstances in which people can visit elderly relatives in care homes.

But he says he knows this has been “wretched” for people.

Van-Tam says this has been very distressing. But when this virus gets into care homes, it can inflict “massive mortality” very quickly.

He says he hopes the rapid testing pilots will allow the rules to be relaxed.

But for now it is a very difficult situation indeed, he says.

Johnson confirms that care homes will get priority for those tests.

Johnson is now taking questions from members of the public.

Q: How many places will have to be in tier 3 before you for a national lockdown?

Johnson says he is trying to avoid that. He will not rule anything out. But this time around the spread of the disease is very varied. That is why regional approaches are best, he says.

From the Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, Jim McMahon

Johnson is speaking again.

• Johnson says Greater Manchester will go into tier 3 restrictions just after midnight on Thursday night. The regulations will be laid out in parliament on Thursday.

He summarises the rules. Baseline tier 3 rules apply, but betting shops, casinos, bingo halls, adult gaming centres, and soft play areas are all closing too.

Van-Tam is now showing heat maps. These show how the virus spreads, by region and by age group week by week. The colours show that once the virus starts among one age group, it spreads to older people.

Here is the 12 October chart.

And here is the chart for now.

Here are hospital admission figures for the north of England.

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, is showing slides explaining the Covid situation.

Here is a slide from 12 October, showing the prevalence of Covid, on the left, and the extent to which it is increasing, on the right. It is the slide for over-60s, the group Van-Tam says worries them most.

And here are the figures for now.

Boris Johnson is starting his press conference now.

He says the countries doing best against Covid around the world are adopting local and regional measures.

Greater Manchester council leaders were getting details of the government’s plans while the Andy Burnham press conference was still going on.

From the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

From Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall

Q: Are you worried that, having told people these rules will be unfair, they won’t obey them because of you. It could be like Dominic Cummings.

Burnham says the opposite is the case. He is telling people to obey the rules.

He says he is urging people to do the right thing.

And, on that note, he has wrapped up the press conference.

Boris Johnson is due to hold is own press conference at 5pm.

At his press conference a reporter suggested to Andy Burnham that, given the gap between the government and Greater Manchester was relatively small, that suggested he was “showboating”, and just boosting his standing ahead of next year’s elections.

At that point several people in the crowd watching shouted: “Rubbish.”

Burnham did not accept the charge. He said £5m may not be much to the government, but it is to Greater Manchester. And he said you should consider the things the government has been willing to spend money on.

The government has updated its coronavirus dashboard. Here are the key figures.

• The UK has recorded 21,330 more coronavirus cases. This is the highest daily total, excluding a day when the numbers were inflated by the addition of past cases, and it’s an increase of more than 2,500 (or 13%) on the total for yesterday (18,804).

• The UK has recorded 241 further deaths. That is the highest daily figure reported since 258 deaths were reported on 5 June but there is often a delay in the reporting of deaths over a weekend.

Commenting on the death figures, Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, said in a statement:

The trend in deaths is rising sharply.

Tragically we know that older people and those with underlying health conditions tend to suffer more if they become unwell.

We all have a responsibility to follow the restrictions to help stop the virus spreading to those who are at greater risk.

Burnham says this came down to a small amount of money. That was easier for the government to find than for Greater Manchester to find. But they weren’t prepared to do this.

He says he does not think the government has worked out what the impact of tier 3 will be – how many people will end up sleeping rough.

But this is not over, he says. He says he now wants parliament to intervene.

If the government were to withdraw the £60m on offer, that would be “an act of very poor faith”, he says.

Burnham says he has doubts about whether closing the places the government wants to close will bring the virus down.

That is what we were facing – pain without the results.

I don’t think the government has yet brought forth a proposal to make its tier 3 proposal work.

Leese says government experts and Greater Manchester experts were united in thinking the government’s approach would not work.

Burnham says 80% of wages is a basic level of support.

(The new government furlough scheme pays 67%.)

Burnham is now taking questions.

Q: What happens next?

Burnham says he thinks they will impose tier 3.

It was not about what they wanted. It was about what they needed, he says.

The government should realise that, if they are asking people to close down places of work, they have to fully support them.

The ‘whatever it takes’ attitude from earlier this year has gone, he says. Now it is ‘you’ll get what we give you’.

Q: Is support still available?

Burnham says the government put £60m on the table.

He suggests he would be surprised if they now withdraw it.

The government said they were committed to levelling up.

What we’ve seen today is a deliberate act of levelling down.