PRIME Minister Boris Johnson will hold a Downing Street press conference at 5pm, No 10 has said.

The government is considering 'all sorts' of policies to try and help people stick to Covid-19 and self-isolation rules, Environment Secretary George Eustice has said.

After reports that £500 could be offered to help people who have to self-isolate, he told BBC Breakfast: "We always had the £500 support payment for those that are on certain benefits.

"We have always kept this under review and we know that it is sometimes quite challenging to ask people to isolate for that length of time.

"At the moment we are in a full lockdown anyway so while people can leave to work, in many cases people will be staying home anyway.

"We constantly keep this under review. We have got to consider all sorts of policies."

Asked about the idea of 'quarantine hotels', Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have considered these matters last week and the judgment was, that for now, the right thing to do is to require pre-travel testing."

It comes as Boris Johnson has warned it is 'absolutely crucial' to follow lockdown rules as research shows a 50% increase in the prevalence of coronavirus in England.

Mr Johnson said research showed that current levels of coronavirus were still too high.

When questioned whether the lockdown may not be eased until the summer, he told reporters: “I think it’s too early to say when we’ll be able to lift some of the restrictions.

“We’ll look then (February 15) at how we’re doing but I think what we’re seeing in the ONS (Office for National Statistics) data, in the React survey, we’re seeing the contagiousness of the new variant that we saw arrive just before Christmas – there’s no doubt it does spread very fast indeed.

“It’s not more deadly but it is much more contagious, and the numbers are very great.”

The study shows a 50 per cent increase in coronavirus infection rates across England between early December and the second week of January.