The NHS will not collapse during the coronavirus second wave, but lockdown is needed to stop major disruption to care, health leaders in England say.

They warned the NHS was not facing a "normal winter" with more than 10,000 patients in hospital with Covid.

Evidence presented by NHS England at a press briefing suggested hospitals could take a maximum of around 20,000 Covid cases before they were full.

They warned this could be hit within weeks unless infection levels reduce.

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NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said some hospitals were already cancelling non-urgent work because the pressures were not being evenly felt across the country.

But he said the spread of the virus needed to be "minimised" to avoid problems developing further.

He said the lockdown, which will be voted on by MPs later, would mean that there would not need to be a mass cancellation of non-urgent work.

Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said she was confident the NHS was "not going to collapse".

But she said it was close to the point where non-Covid treatments were on the brink of being disrupted on a significant scale.