Government announces end of daily coronavirus briefings

Boris Johnson will lead the final daily briefing at 5pm tonight alongside chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

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By Patrick Cremona

Published: Tuesday, 23rd June 2020 at 4:24 pm

This evening’s daily televised coronavirus briefing from Downing Street will be the last one, the government has confirmed.

Boris Johnson will address the nation at 5pm tonight alongside chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance as he looks to further outline the relaxation of lockdown measures announced earlier today.

And a statement from Number 10 said that the televised conferences, which have been taking place throughout the pandemic, would cease to be a daily event from today – instead only occurring when there was significant announcements.

A spokesperson said, “From today, the press conferences will no longer be daily. We’ll continue to hold press conferences to coincide with significant announcements, including with the PM.

“We will be publishing all of the data which has previously been included in the press conference slides on gov.uk every week day.”

Earlier this month the government dropped weekend coronavirus briefings due to low viewing figures, taking the number of televised conferences down from seven a week to five.