BORIS Johnson will hold will lead a Downing Street press conference at 5pm, Downing Street has confirmed.

The Prime Minister will be joined by England’s chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

It comes as schools reopened classrooms across the country following the festive season with Omicron cases on the rise.

The press conference will be broadcast on BBC, ITV, Sky News and other major news channels. It will also be available to stream on social media.

Here is what he is likely to talk about.

Crunch Covid talks

The Prime Minister will hold a Covid meeting today as ministers return after Christmas.

The Prime Minister is said to be against imposing further restrictions with current Plan B rules and the booster jab rollout said to be “working”.

Mr Johnson will likely provide an update on the vaccine rollout and once again urge people to get the jab.

NHS in crisis?

Public services are resorting to emergency plans to mitigate staff shortages caused by the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

At least six hospital trusts have declared critical incidents – where priority services may be under threat.

Boris Johnson said on Monday that he would “make sure that we look after our NHS any way that we can” but health leaders warned the health service was “in a state of crisis”

Return of schools

Many schools will return this week with extra Covid safety measures in place as the Government is set to review its Plan B restrictions for England.

With data still trickling in from the festive period, the extent to which the highly-transmissible Omicron variant will pile pressure on the NHS in the coming weeks is not yet clear.

A further 137,583 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases were recorded in England and Wales as of 9am on Sunday, the Government said.

This was down on the 162,572 cases recorded in England alone on Saturday.

It is “almost inevitable” that Omicron cases will rise when pupils return to school this week, a virus expert has said.

Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, of the University of Edinburgh, said that, given the transmissibility of the new variant of Covid-19 and its prominence in Scotland, it is likely that numbers will rise.

Daily coronavirus cases in Scotland reached a record new high of 20,217 on Monday, with a daily test positivity rate of 34.9%.

The Scottish Government has urged secondary school pupils to take a lateral flow test before returning to school this week to limit the spread of Omicron, while those aged 12-15 are being encouraged to come forward for their second coronavirus jab for which they are now eligible.

Boris Johnson is expected to outline new measures in schools as the new term begins.

Thanks to vaccine volunteers

Tens of thousands of vaccine volunteers have been praised for their “amazing” work in giving up around two million hours of their time to help with the jabs rollout throughout 2021.

NHS England said volunteers who worked alongside healthcare staff had helped especially in facilitating the ramped-up rollout of jabs and boosters in December.

Boris Johnson is likely to reiterate this message to the nation and thank volunteers across the UK.