MINISTERS are considering tough new coronavirus restrictions, as Boris Johnson said the long-feared the second wave of the pandemic has arrived in the UK.

With new cases of the disease in England estimated to have doubled over the past week, the Prime Minister said they were keeping "everything under review."

He is facing calls from the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales to call a meeting of the Government’s Cobra civil contingencies committee with the devolved administrations to consider the worsening situation.

The Government is thought to be looking at a temporary two-week "circuit break," with new controls across England in an attempt to break the chain of transmission and prevent a new spike in the disease.

The move could see hospitality and leisure venues forced to close their doors again, while socialising between households could be banned.

However, there are concerns among some Tory MPs of the economic impact of further restrictions just as activity is picking up again following the first lockdown.

The warning comes less than a week after the new “rule of six” – outlawing social gatherings of more than six people – came into force, underlining the speed at which the virus had taken off again.

Earlier on Friday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced new restrictions for large parts of England’s North West, West Yorkshire and the Midlands.

It means by Tuesday, when the measures come into force, around 13.5 million people in the UK will be living under some form of coronavirus controls.

The Prime Minister insisted he still wanted to avoid a second national lockdown.

Cases of the virus and hospital admissions for Covid-19 are doubling every seven to eight days in the UK, according to the new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).