English pubs must close early as Johnson responds to runaway Covid-19 cases

All pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues in England will be restricted by law to table service only and will have to close at 10pm from Thursday, to help curb the spread of coronavirus.

These measures are the government’s initial response to the UK’s Covid-19 alert level being moved to 4, which means that transmission is “high or rising exponentially”.

On Monday, a further 4,368 daily cases and 11 deaths were reported in the UK.

The government’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance has warned there could be 50,000 new cases a day without further action. That could lead to more than 200 deaths per day by mid-November.

The UK Cabinet is meeting this morning, Tuesday, and Boris Johnson will also chair an emergency Cobra meeting, which will be attended by the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Further announcements are expected after the meetings.