Coronavirus: PM says more information on school closures to come 'imminently'

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions in a thinned-out House of Commons today, Boris Johnson was quizzed on the Government’s response to the outbreak.

And he revealed there would be”further announcements to be taken imminently on schools”.

Mr Johnson paid tribute to teachers and staff "for everything that they've done to keep our schools going", and it is expected there will be more measures announced at the now daily Downing Street press conference this afternoon.

The plan could include targeted measures to look after the children of NHS workers.

Mr Johnson also confirmed that the UK is getting "much closer" to having a generally available test to determine whether someone has had coronavirus.

Mr Corbyn said: "NHS staff and those working in the care sector are on the front line of caring for patients suffering from coronavirus. However, sadly, those workers have no idea if they're actually transmitting the virus themselves.

"They may not be obviously suffering from it but they could still be transmitting it and if they're ill or not, when they return on the front line, what effect it will have. So can the Prime Minister please explain why the Government isn't prioritising the testing of all health care staff, both those in the NHS and those doing such a vital job in the care sector?"

Mr Johnson said: "Well in point of fact, we are prioritising testing of NHS staff for the obvious reason that we want them to be able to look after everybody else with confidence that they're not transmitting the disease and this country is actually far ahead of many other comparable countries in testing huge numbers of people.

"We're increasing our tests from 5,000 to 10,000 a day and it may be of interest to the House to know that we are getting much closer to having a generally available test which will determine whether or not you have had the disease and that will truly be of huge benefit to this country in tackling the outbreak."