Boris Johnson faced fresh pressure to consider a tighter national lockdown in the face of figures suggesting local measures to contain the spread of coronavirus were not working.
Professor Calum Semple, a member of the Government's scientific advisory panel who specialises in disease outbreaks, recommended a "circuit breaker" be considered on a national basis in a bid to slow the virus, rather than trying to reduce it at a later stage.
Case numbers have risen sharply in recent weeks, with the UK today recording 14,162 new cases of Covid-19 today. A fortnight before, on 22 September, there were 4,926 cases recorded.
In Northern Ireland, 828 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the past 24 hours. It brings to 4,417 the number of