| December 28, 2021   Boris Johnson's government has ruled out further Covid restrictions in England before the new year, leaving the country at odds with other parts of the UK where curbs have been tightened to tackle the Omicron variant.
Health secretary Sajid Javid confirmed that the prime minister had decided not to bring in any fresh measures this week, but said ministers would look again in January at whether more controls were needed.
"There will be no further measures before the new year," Mr Javid told reporters on Monday. "We won't be taking any further measures. Of course people should remain cautious as we approach new year celebrations."
The prime minister said added that he would "continue to monitor the data carefully."
However, Mr Johnson was warned that the NHS could soon be "overwhelmed" by the rise in Covid cases, as the trade union for hospital doctors said it was "ludicrous" not to bring in further measures immediately.
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The Big Question  How long is Omicron's incubation period? The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has spread around the world at a rapid pace since it was first discovered in southern Africa last month but there is still a great deal we do not know about it.
More data is needed to determine its precise characteristics and how it responds to our existing coronavirus vaccines, but what seems beyond doubt is that it is more transmissible than any previous strains we have encountered over the course of the pandemic so far, including the Alpha and Delta variants.
Omicron has been detected in at least 89 countries to date, with the likes of the Netherlands, Germany and South Korea reimposing lockdown measures to slow its spread.
The UK has recorded 14 deaths from the new variant so far and more than 60,000 confirmed cases at the time of writing, according to the UK Health Security Agency, while overall Covid cases have more than doubled, rocketing to a pandemic high of 93,045 last Friday.
One thing that has become clear over the last few weeks is how the Omicron variant differs from the original Covid strain.
NUMBER OF THE DAY 50% The number of Covid patients in London hospitals has increased by almost 50 per cent within a week, with admissions on the rise across all but one region of England, new figures have shown
QUOTE OF THE DAY "That is the culture and the foundation which lowland rescue lives by, in that the support to the local community in their time of need is what makes lowland rescue and [the National Search and Rescue Dog Association] special." – Ian Danks, the owner of a search and rescue dog called Juno, who he was reunited with yesterday after she had disappeared for six days
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