PRIME Minister Boris Johnson will make a televised address tonight, January 4, outlining the steps to tackle the rise in coronavirus cases.

Parliament is also set to be recalled to sit on Wednesday, Downing Street has said.

The Prime Minister’s televised address is expected to take place at 8pm.

A 10 Downing Street spokesman said: “The spread of the new variant of Covid-19 has led to rapidly escalating case numbers across the country.

“The Prime Minister is clear that further steps must now be taken to arrest this rise and to protect the NHS and save lives.

“He will set those out this evening.”

Infection rates have more than doubled in Cheshire West over the past fortnight, with the latest rate from Public Health England standing at 396.1 per 100,000 people, compared to 243.1 one week ago and 176.6 two weeks earlier.

There has also been a sharp increase in Cheshire East, which has an infection rate of 323.3 per 100,000 people, compared to 232.5 one week ago and 144.7 two weeks ago.

Earlier today, Health Secretary Matt Hancock refused to rule out tougher measures to tackle the recent surge in Covid rates.

He told Sky News: "We don't rule anything out, and we've shown repeatedly that we will look at the public health advice and we will take the public health advice in terms of what is needed to control the spread of the disease.

"This new variant is much easier to catch – it is much more transmissible, and we're now seeing the effect of that in lots of different parts of the country, unfortunately.

"And it means that whereas the old Tier 3 was able to contain the old variant, that is proving increasingly difficult in all parts of the country."