Here are the latest updates from the last 24 hours:

Prime Minister to host emergency Cobra meeting 

Boris Johnson is to hold crisis talks with ministers after European countries closed their doors to flights and ferry crossings from the UK amid fears over the new mutant coronavirus strain.

The Prime Minister will chair a meeting of the Government’s Cobra civil contingencies committee on Monday amid warnings of “significant disruption” around the Channel ports in Kent.

The move comes after France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and Bulgaria all announced restrictions on UK travel following the disclosure that the highly infectious new strain is widespread across south-east England.

With France suspending all traffic from the UK for 48 hours, it raised fears that trade flows could be severely disrupted while passengers across Europe could be left stranded in the final run-up to Christmas.

Tough new Covid-19 controls could be  in place for months

Tough new Covid controls could be in place for months, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned as he admitted a mutant new strain of the virus was running “out of control”.

He said the country was facing an “enormous challenge” after scientists warned the new VUI 202012/01 variant could be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the original virus.

“The new variant is out of control and we need to bring it under control,” he told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.

“We don’t know how long these measures are going to be in place. It may be for some time until we can get the vaccine going.”

New variant has been found in every English region

Dr Susan Hopkins, of Public Health England, said that the new variant had spread to other parts of the UK, but in smaller amounts than London, Kent and parts of Essex.

She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “It has been detected in many other parts of the country. Every region has cases but with very small numbers.

“It has also been detected in Wales, in Scotland, we have not had any detected in Northern Ireland.”

The new strain of coronavirus in the South-East was identified in September, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official has said.

Cases surging in the South-East

Cases have been surging in the South-East. Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said: “This sharp and sudden increase is of serious concern. Most of the new cases reported today are concentrated in London and the South East, although it is too early to tell if this is linked to the new variant.

“What we do know is that the way to control this virus is the same, whatever the variant. It simply will not spread if we avoid close contact with others. Wash your hands, wear a mask, keep your distance from others, and reduce your social contacts.

“By working together we have tackled this virus before. By holding the line over the next few weeks, it is possible we can do so again, as we continue to roll out the vaccine to the most vulnerable.”

Eleven further deaths at hospitals in the region

Almost 800 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the North-East and North Yorkshire on Sunday.

And eleven further deaths were recorded at hospitals in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

There were four at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, four at South Tyneside and Sunderland, two at Newcastle Hospitals and one at Northumbria Healthcare.

The Government said a further 326 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Sunday, bringing the UK total to 67,401.

Labour calls for an apology

Sir Keir Starmer has called on Boris Johnson to apologise to the public for the way the latest coronavirus restrictions had been handled.

The Labour leader told an online press conference: “I think the Prime Minister should apologise. This is not just one mistake when he has otherwise got things right. It is the same mistake over and over again.

“At the heart of the problem here is a Prime Minister who simply doesn’t want to be unpopular and therefore won’t take the tough decisions that are necessary, until he is forced into them at the 11th hour.

“We can’t go on like that. I think that it is very important that the Prime Minister does apologise to people for his handling of this episode of the pandemic.”