The Prime Minister has reassured the public that the Government will return to a tiered approach to coronavirus from December 2.

Speaking in a news conference this evening about the country's second national lockdown, Boris Johnson said: "Four weeks is enough for these measures to make a real impact."

The Prime Minister repeated the promise that the Government is still planning to remove the lockdown and return to a tiered approach on December 2.

He said there were currently 12,320 people in hospital with coronavirus in the UK and yesterday there were 492 deaths.

The weekly average number of deaths currently stands at 295, which is up from 53 a month earlier.

Mr Johnson says the current R rate is between 1.1 and 1.3.

"From today we are once again asking you to stay at home," he said.

"By working together we can get the country on top of the virus."

Simon Stevens, Chief Executive Officer of the NHS, said: "The second wave (of coronavirus) is real and it is serious".

He said the coronavirus death rate has more than halved since the start of the pandemic.

Mr Stevens said there are currently 30,000 NHS staff who either have coronavirus or who are self-isolating.

Talking about Christmas, Mr Johnson added: "If we follow the programme of measures, as we have done before, I have no doubt people will be able to have as normal a Christmas as possible."