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Today's government coronavirus conference was led by Business Secretary Alok Sharma, who was accompanied by Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England.

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We began tonight's briefing with the latest figures which now stand at 2,580,769 people who have been tested for the virus, and 91,206 that took place yesterday. Unfortunately though a further 170 people have also passed since yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths to 34,636.


Key points to take away from today's speech are:

• "Our thoughts are very much with the families and loved ones that have lost their lives" says Alok Sharma after announcing the tragic rise of deaths.
  
  

• Reiterating on the points made by The Prime Minister earlier this week, the Business Secretary says the government is cautious in preventing the second wave from overwhelming the NHS, but is also trying to help ease the public back into normality.
  
  

• He then went on to announce a new £84m vaccine funding by the government, aiming to speed up the process of finding a cure. He said "This new money will help mass produce the Oxford vaccine so if trials are successful we have dosages to start vaccinating straight away,".
  
  

• Alongside the funding, a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca to help the manufacture of 30 million doses, which are said to be made available by September time.
  
  

• We still have the highest death toll in Europe, but today's report shows this is the lowest number of fatalities since the day after the lockdown began.
  
  

• Finally Alok Sharma reads off today's last announcement by informing us of the plans to build a "rapid deployment facility" with £38m having been put towards it. This facility will ensure everyone in the UK has access to vaccines.
  
  

• ​Prof Stephen Powis then advises people not to fear about 'burdening the NHS' if you're suffering something serve, stating the latest figures show a record low level of A&E visits.
  
  

• We're also beginning to see a "steady fall" in coronavirus hospital patients across the whole of England says Powis. Below are all the figures from today's conference.

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To read a brief summary of last night's points and important measures click here.

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