Boris Johnson has said a new government antivirals taskforce will help identify new medicines for the treatment of Covid-19.

The Prime Minister told a Downing Street news conference that  they could give confidence to people that the country could “continue on our path towards freedom”.

“This means for example that if you test positive for the virus that there might be a tablet you could take at home to stop the virus in its tracks and significantly reduce the chance of infection turning into more serious disease,” he said.

Mr Johnson said there was nothing in the current data to suggest that they could not proceed with the the next stage of unlocking under the road map as planned.

However he said that most scientists were “firmly of the view” that there would be a third wave of the disease at some point this year.

Mr Johnson spoke about the recent addition of India to the travel red list. He said it was on a “purely precautionary basis” amid the variant first discovered there, which is under investigation by UK experts.

“What we’re seeing in India is a result of a variant under investigation, it hasn’t yet been deemed a variant of concern –  I think that was why there has been the delay" he added.

“I think what the JBC (Joint Biosecurity Centre) has decided is on a purely precautionary basis it’s necessary now to put India on the red list.

“I want to stress that even before that we have measures in place for everybody coming from India that are very, very tough indeed.”