Living with Covid: Sir Chris Whitty to join Boris Johnson at press conference this evening

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Boris Johnson is to be joined by chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance at a press conference late this afternoon to discuss the government’s plan for “living with Covid”, Downing Street has said.

The presence of the “three amigos” at the Downing Street briefing will be seen as confirmation that Whitty and Vallance have signed off on the controversial plan, which will bring forward by a month the lifting of the legal requirement to isolate after a positive test for coronavirus.

The announcement was thrown into chaos today as wrangling between the Treasury and Department of Health over funding force the last-minute cancellation of a cabinet meeting intended to rubber-stamp Mr Johnson’s plan.

It is understood that some ministers arrived at No 10 for the scheduled in-person meeting at 10am only to find it had been delayed as further talks took place to thrash out funding for future testing and monitoring regimes.

Cabinet is now expected to convene by video conference early in the afternoon, ahead of a statement to the House of Commons by Mr Johnson at around 4.30pm and the press conference at 6.30-7pm.