Boris Johnson has said that he is not immediately imposing any further Covid restrictions in England, but will not hesitate to do so if the data shows it is necessary.
Speaking at the end of a three-hour emergency meeting of cabinet, Mr Johnson said that the arguments for and against going beyond the current Plan B restrictions were “finely balanced”.
He said that ministers had agreed that the data on infections, hospitalisations and deaths should be kept under “constant review” on an hour-by-hour basis.
And he said he would not hesitate to take further action to protect public health if the data showed it to be needed.
The prime minister’s scientific advisers have warned that action is needed urgently to save the NHS from being overwhelmed.
Recommended Downing Street garden gathering was ‘people at work, talking about work’ – PM Boris Johnson says he was ‘at work’ during No 10 garden gathering Johnson warns public to expect new curbs to control spread of Omicron
Minutes of advisory group Sage’s last meeting on Thursday warned “more stringent measures would need to be implemented very soon” to prevent hospitalisations reaching thousands per day.
And the Sage experts warned that delaying until the New Year would “greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings”.
UK news in pictures Show all 50
1/50UK news in pictures
UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux
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UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent
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UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election
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UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire
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UK news in pictures 15 December 2021 Lewis Hamilton is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle
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UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool
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UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster
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UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds
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UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds,
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UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judge’s decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
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UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service
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UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine
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UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow
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UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra
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UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother
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UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London
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UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum
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UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar
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UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week
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UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana
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UK news in pictures 28 November 2021 Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City battles for possession with Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United during a match at the Etihad during snow
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UK news in pictures 27 November 2021 Residents clear branches from a fallen tree in Birkenhead, north west England as “Storm Arwen” triggered a rare “red weather” warning
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 An aerial picture shows a worker using a quad bike and trailer to transport freshly harvested trees at Pimms Christmas Tree farm in Matfield, southeast England
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UK news in pictures 26 November 2021 A shopper browses Christmas trees for sale at Pines and Needles in Dulwich, London
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UK news in pictures 25 November 2021 A murmuration of hundreds of thousands of starlings fly over a field at dusk in Cumbria, close to the Scottish border
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London
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UK news in pictures 24 November 2021 Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel.
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UK news in pictures 23 November 2021 The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London
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UK news in pictures 22 November 2021 The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead
Tom Wren/SWNS
UK news in pictures 21 November 2021 London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a 'March with Midwives' in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services
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UK news in pictures 20 November 2021 Police officers monitor as climate change activists sit down and block traffic during a protest action in solidarity with activists from the Insulate Britain group who received prison terms for blocking roads, on Lambeth Bridge in central London
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UK news in pictures 19 November 2021 A giant installation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson made from recycled clothing goes on display at Manchester Central, as part of Manchester Art Fair, in a 'wake-up call for the Prime Minister to tackle textile waste'
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UK news in pictures 18 November 2021 The scene at a recycling centre in Stert, near Devizes in Wiltshire after a large blaze was brought under control. The fire broke out on Wednesday night the fire service has said and local residents were advised to keep windows and doors shut due to large amounts of smoke
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UK news in pictures 17 November 2021 The sun rises over South Shields Lighthouse, on the North East coast of England
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UK news in pictures 16 November 2021 ancer Maithili Vijayakumar at the launch of 2021 Diwali celebrations at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh
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UK news in pictures 15 November 2021 Forensic officers work outside Liverpool Women's Hospital, following a car blast, in Liverpool
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UK news in pictures 14 November 2021 Wreaths by the Cenotaph after the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall, London
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UK news in pictures 13 November 2021 Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is ending his hunger strike in central London after almost three weeks. Ratcliffe has spent 21 days camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London without food. He began his demonstration on 24 October after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family was “caught in a dispute between two states”
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UK news in pictures 12 November 2021 Peter Green protesting outside the Cop26 gates during the official final day of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
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UK news in pictures 11 November 2021 Seagulls fly around the statue entitled 'Tommy', a first World War soldier by artist Ray Lonsdale at dawn in Seaham, Britain
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UK news in pictures 10 November 2021 Climate activists dressed as characters inspired by the Netflix series “Squid Game” protest as they ask Samsung to go 100% renewable energy, outside the venue for COP26 in Glasgow
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UK news in pictures 9 November 2021 A deer statue silhouetted at Loch Faskally in Pitlochry, Scotland
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UK news in pictures 8 November 2021 Sunrise over St Mary's Lighthouse at Whitley Bay on the North East coast of England
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UK news in pictures 7 November 2021 Activists from Friends of the Earth during a demonstration calling for an end to all new oil and gas projects in the North Sea outside the UK Government's Cop26 hub during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow
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UK news in pictures 6 November 2021 Protesters take part in a rally organised by the Cop26 Coalition in Glasgow demanding global climate justice
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UK news in pictures 5 November 2021 Final touches are made to a life sized Sir David Attenborough cake surrounded by animals as part of a display created by a group of cake artists during Cake International at NEC Birmingham
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UK news in pictures 4 November 2021 A spectacular display of the Northern Lights seen over Derwentwater, near Keswick in the Lake District
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UK news in pictures 3 November 2021 Police and demonstrators at a Extinction Rebellion protest on Buchanan Street, during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow
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UK news in pictures 2 November 2021 A person walks along the Basingstoke canal near to Dogmersfield in Hampshire
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Scientists have reportedly offered Mr Johnson three options for potential action - non-legally binding advice to families to limit indoor mixing over the Christmas period; new restrictions on indoor mixing, a return of social distancing and an 8pm curfew on pubs and restaurants; or a full-scale “firebreak” lockdown.
Mr Johnson said: “I agree that the situation is extremely difficult and the arguments either way are very, very finely balanced.
“We’ve got cases of Omicron surging across the country now we’ve got hospitalisations, rising quite steeply in in London and the obvious conclusion is that of course it was right to go fast to Plan B in the way that we did and also right to double the speed of the booster rollout.”
But he said that there were “risks and uncertainties” surrounding the rate at which people infected with Omicron are likely to end up in hospital, the severity of any illness caused and the effectiveness of the booster vaccine in fighting off the variant.
“We agreed that we should keep the data from now on under constant review, keep following it hour by hour,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I must say to people we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public and to protect public health and to protect our NHS, and we won’t hesitate to take that action.”
Mr Johnson added: “In the meantime what I would say to everybody is ‘Please exercise caution as you go about your lives. Please think of the guidance and protecting yourself and your loved ones.
“‘And please get a booster. Please get a vaccination.’
“It could not be more urgent. There are still millions of people in this country who haven’t got a vaccination and it makes such a difference. The evidence is overwhelming. It’s such a positive thing to do.
“And I say to all those people who are vaccinated whether out of apathy or whatever reason, please, please please think of this as a great thing to do for yourself and for your family to get boosted now.”
Mr Johnson said the government was ruling nothing out in terms of future measures, but for the time being was relying on Plan B restrictions - including mandatory facemasks in many enclosed public spaces and Covid passes for crowded events - as well as public caution on issues like ventilation and hand hygiene.
He said it was clear that the public was already voluntarily taking precautions in terms of cancelling planned entertainment, shopping and get-togethers over the festive period.
“You can see in people’s patterns of behaviour since we went to Plan B that they are changing the way they go about their lives, they are changing some of the assumptions they make about the things that they want to do,” said the PM.
“I know that that has had consequences for some parts of our economy, some parts of the hospitality sector. In many ways I regret that. But if it can help to get down the R, get done the way the disease is multiplying, that can be very helpful to us and and to the country. But what really matters is for everybody to get vaccinated and get boosted above all.”
He said financial support for the entertainment and hospitality industries was “under constant review”, but had no immediate announcement of cash help for struggling businesses.
“Of course I understand how tough it must be and nobody wanted things to go this way,” said Mr Johnson. “Omicron has simply exploded so fast that we’ve seen people naturally deciding to make sure that they they protect themselves and they avoid spreading the disease.
“The benefits of that course of action we may see in the next few days and weeks in the way we’re able to contain the disease but it is important that we act cautiously.
“And of course, it’s also important that we look after the hospitality sector, the theatres and other parts of our incredible entertainment industry which will suffer and are suffering. There are packages of funding already in place and the economic side of this is under constant review as well.”
He rejected allegations that the government was moving too slowly in response to the threat of the new variant.
“As soon as we saw what was happening with Omicron - and you will remember it was very controversial and there were many colleagues in parliament who said ‘No, this goes too far’ - we went ahead with Plan B virtually straight away,” he said. “And I think that was the right thing to do.
“We also doubled the speed of the vaccine rollout, we went into overdrive with the vaccine rollout, with the the booster rollout in particular.
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“There are still some things that we need to be clearer about before we decide to go further, but I’ve got to say to the British public we will not exclude going further if we have to do things to protect the public.”