What time is Boris Johnson's press conference and what will he say?
18 March 2021, 14:07 | Updated: 18 March 2021, 14:46
Boris Johnson is holding a Downing Street press conference this afternoon, but what time is it and what is he expected to say?
The Prime Minister will take to the podium at 5pm, flanked by Professor Chris Whitty and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency chief executive Dr June Raine
What time is Boris Johnson's press conference?
The Prime Minister will talk at 5pm.
What will Boris Johnson talk about?
It is likely he will seek to ease fears that the UK's so-far vastly successful vaccine programme could be veering off course over the issue of supply.
The Indian government has been accused of temporarily holding Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine exports to the UK causing a shortfall in doses for the month of April.
A shipment of five million doses produced by the Serum Institiute of India (SII) has been delayed, according to reports.
The UK already received an initial batch of five million doses at the beginning of March.
READ MORE: 1.7m doses need re-testing and supplies from India delayed, Matt Hancock confirms
READ MORE: No proven link between AstraZeneca jab and blood clots, says UK regulator
Mr Johnson may also talk about the need to retest 1.7million coronavirus vaccine doses.
The number of people getting their first dose of the vaccine will be “constrained” from the end of March due to a “significant reduction” in supply, health officials said yesterday.
Explaining the reasons for this in the House of Commons, the Health Secretary said a batch of 1.7 million doses had been delayed “because of the need to retest its stability”.
