Health secretary Matt Hancock hailed the second national lockdown as a success but warned that we must remain vigilant ahead of Christmas.

Ahead of lockdown ending on Wednesday, Mr Hancock said the restrictions have helped cases in England to drop by 30% in the last week.

He added: "We have got this virus back under control."

The R rate is back below 1 - but only just - and Mr Hancock said the country cannot risk cases rising again towards Christmas with the flu season round the corner.

Despite the fall in cases, Hancock said we must be "vigilant" and while national restrictions are being eased, some need to remain in place.

The government is now expanding its community testing programme, including testing people without symptoms, as it is hoped that testing asymptomatic people can help break the chain of transmission.

The health secretary said mass testing brought down case rates in Liverpool and the government wants to roll this out more widely.

The next stage will be offering mass testing to tier three areas to so that they can