UK's Johnson to hold news conference as new lockdown urged

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to hold a news conference alongside his top scientific advisers Saturday amid anticipation of him announcing a new national lockdown for England to stem a resurgence of the coronavirus that pushed the U..K.'s total confirmed cases past 1 million.

Scientists warned COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the U.K. could soon surpass the levels seen at the outbreak’s spring peak. Johnson's office said the late-afternoon press conference would follow a Cabinet meeting to discuss “the government's coronavirus response.”

The meeting came after the Times of London reported that Johnson could announce a month-long lockdown as soon as Monday. The government said early Saturday that no final decision had been made, but Johnson was under growing pressure to act quickly.

London School of Hygiene epidemiologist John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said Saturday that cases were running “significantly above” a reasonable worst-case scenario drawn up by modelers.

“It is really unthinkable now, unfortunately, that we don’t count our deaths in tens of thousands from this wave,” Edmunds told the BBC. “The issue is, is that going to be low tens of thousands if we take radical action now or is that going to be the high tens of thousands if we don’t?”

Official figures announced Saturday recorded 21,915 new cases confirmed in the last 24 hours, bringing Britain's total since the start of the pandemic to 1,011,660. Britain’s death toll from the coronavirus is 46,555, the highest in Europe.

The United States, India, Brazil, Russia, France, Spain, Argentina and Colombia have also recorded more than 1 million cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Scientists say the true number of cases is much higher...