England Health Secretary Matt Hancock will be making a statement to the House of Commons this afternoon. He is expected to cover the latest news on the lockdown tiers as well as the decision made by Wales to introduce a two-week 'firebreak' lockdown from Friday.
Mr Drakeford told a Welsh Government press conference in Cardiff that the measure was necessary to reduce the spread of coronavirus and prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, an announcement over Manchester moving to Tier 3 is expected to be made within the next 36 hours.
A further 76 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 31,047, NHS England said today.
Patients were aged between 47 and 99. All but one patient, aged 85, had known underlying health conditions.
The deaths were between October 9 and 18. Two other deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
Mr Hancock is expected to start his statement at 4.30pm.
Ministers are “carefully considering next steps” after failing to strike an agreement with Greater Manchester over Tier 3 restrictions.
A Government spokesman said: “A meeting between government and local leaders in Greater Manchester has concluded this afternoon following discussions throughout last week, over the weekend and this morning on measures necessary to protect the public.
“Disappointingly, we have still not been able to reach an agreement.
“This is particularly concerning against the backdrop of rising cases and hospitalisations in Greater Manchester. We are carefully considering next steps.”
Meanwhile, the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has said it is “unlikely” that a coronavirus vaccine will stop the disease completely.
Giving evidence to the joint Commons and Lords National Security Strategy Committee, Sir Patrick said that only one disease – smallpox – had ever been completely eradicated.
He said that in future, treating Covid-19 may become more like seasonal flu.
“I think it is unlikely that we will end up with a truly sterilising vaccine that completely stops infection,” he said.
“It is likely that this disease will circulate and be pandemic. My assessment – and I think that’s the view of many people – is that’s the likely outcome.
“Clearly as management becomes better, as you get vaccination that will decrease the chance of infection and the severity of the disease – or whatever the protocols of the vaccines are – this then starts to look more like annual flu than anything else and that may be the direction we end up going in.”
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