THE Health Secretary Matt Hancock will lead a Downing Street press conference this afternoon to provide the latest updates on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Hancock will be joined by deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam and Public Health England’s head of immunisation Dr Mary Ramsey at the press conference at 5pm.

It is the first conference in quite a while and will provide an update on the Covid-19 situation in the UK.

What will Matt Hancock cover?

Vaccine rollout

Today, the vaccine rollout run by the NHNS has moved onto the over 50s cohort, meaning all nine priority groups of the Covid vaccine can now get the vaccine.

The Government is hoping all nine priority groups as identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will have had at least one dose by mid-April, which should stop 99 per cent of deaths and nearly all hospitalisations from Covid-19.

Expect him to sing the praises of the vaccination programme, but also take some pelters from journalists following Dominic Cummings' comments this morning that the Department of Health was a "smoking ruin" and that he, along with chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, the Cabinet Secretary and others decided to take responsibility for the vaccine rollout away from the Department.

AstraZeneca concerns

Mr Hancock will also be quick to reassure the public of the safety of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine after several European countries suspended its use due to worries about blood clots.

Scientists have already said there is no link between blood clots and the vaccine so the Health Secretary will be almost certain to hammer home the message that the vaccine is safe at this critical time in the rollout.

The Roadmap

With the weather improving and the second part of the first step of the roadmap out of lockdown approaching, attention is turning towards March 29 and the Easter holidays, when the rule of six returns outdoors and the 'stay at home' message is binned and replaced with 'stay local'.

Mr Hancock might be asked for clarity on what 'stay local' actually means, given there are no legal limits on how far people can travel, and if the country is ready for the relaxation of rules and if he fears it will have a bad impacty on infections.

Looking to the future too, he could be asked if people should book foreign holidays as more countries say they are opening to tourists in readiness for the summer.

We will be running a live blog on the press conference to follow all the updates live.