Covid LIVE: Major travel rule change TODAY for British tourists entering EU nation BRITONS can now resume travel to Germany. By Rachel Hagan

       10:12, Tue, Jan 4, 2022 | UPDATED: 10:18, Tue, Jan 4, 2022

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       From today, the UK will be moved to the less severe “high risk” list. (Image: GETTY)

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       A travel ban has been in place on arrivals from the UK to Germany since December 19, following a high rate of Omicron cases. All British tourists, business travellers and those visiting family were unable to enter. Only British residents of Germany - and German citizens - could travel, but faced a fortnight of quarantine. From today, the UK will be moved to the less severe “high risk” list. The German Embassy in London tweeted: “With effect from 0:00 hours CET on Tuesday, January 4, 2022, the ban on carriage of persons travelling from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Germany and the associated entry restriction will be lifted.”

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       KEY EVENTS Boris Johnson 'didn't self-isolate' following close contact08:41

       27 mins ago10:12 Rachel Hagan

       Delhi imposes weekend curfew as COVID cases multiply

       Authorities in Delhi on Tuesday ordered people to stay home over the coming weeks as Covid cases rocket, having quadrupled in a week.

       Their chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said he caught the virus just a day after he addressed an election rally without a mask. In the past 24 hours there has been 37,379 new COVID-19 cases and 124 deaths.

       The daily case load was the highest since early September and experts suspect the highly transmissible Omicron variant has begun to overtake the Delta variant as the latest wave of coronavirus infection builds in places like Delhi, despite hospitalisations not yet spiking.

       1 hour ago09:30 Rachel Hagan

       NHS hospitals won't become overwhelmed on a national scale

       A government insider told Politico that there is “nothing in the data” that currently suggests NHS hospitals will become overwhelmed on a national scale.

       Another Whitehall insider said the concern of senior ministers has lessened now they know more about the Omicron variant.

       A third health source said while there will inevitably be serious challenges to the NHS, there is optimism to be expressed that the sort of devastating outcomes we saw in 2020 should be avoided.

       2 hours ago09:00 Rachel Hagan

       Booster rollout is not flatlining

       Asked if the booster rollout was flatlining, the vaccines minister Maggie Throup told Sky News: “No, not at all. What’s been really encouraging is how many people have come forward over the Bank Holidays. We always expected a drop off over the Bank Holidays.

       It’s only right that we do have slots for people to book in the next few days, and also it’s never too late for people to come forward for their first jab and their second jab... [these are] incredible figures over a very short time period.”

       2 hours ago08:41 Rachel Hagan

       Boris Johnson 'didn't self-isolate' following close contact

       Boris Johnson is facing new allegations about breaching Covid rules, from failing to self isolate in January last year when the nation was in full lockdown.

       The Mirror reports that the Prime Minister is alleged to have been stood near the Number 10 videographer when delivering his official New Year message on December 31, 2020.

       The videographer then tested positive for Covid and all members of staff who were present in the room where the message was being recorded were asked to self-isolate.

       A Downing Street spokesperson insisted that Johnson did not break social distancing rules and was not required to self-isolate.

       2 hours ago08:34 Rachel Hagan

       'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months'

       Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said to The Telegraph, “we need to target the vulnerable” in future, rather than giving boosters to all over-12s.

       He warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable” and there was no point in trying to stop all infections, and that “at some point, society has to open up”.

       2 hours ago08:12 Rachel Hagan

       'Pessimism has been the theme of your conversations over the last few minutes, hasn't it?'

       Chief of Executive of the NHS Confederation Matthew Taylor said staff absence within the NHS means that leaders are having to work around the clock, just thinking about how they can deploy their resources best to deal with the most urgent and pressing needs.

       He said: “Even that even using all their imagination and creativity is becoming almost impossible, which is why we see hospitals declaring critical incidents.”

       Asked whether COVID isolation should be reduced for NHS workers to limit that the impacts, Mr Taylor said: “Well, only if the science suggests that its safe. It's important to recognise that the government reduced from 10 days to seven not because it was saying the infection didn't matter so much, but if you have a lateral flow test on day six and day seven, and they're both clear, then that's as safe as going back after 10 days.”

       But he said for people working in clinical situations, the criteria are more demanding. He said: “we do not want people in these circumstances going back into hospitals or health situations with any risk of passing that infection on.”

       He continued: “Pessimism has been the theme of your conversations over the last few minutes, hasn't it? We should feel some hope and confidence about the medium term. That we hope that we will gradually become more able to live with COVID.”

       But on the other hand, we've got to recognise where we all now and we've got to recognise in the next few weeks at least things are very, very difficult.

       And I think that one thing that people now service find difficult is it does seem as though there's a kind of almost politicised attempt to suggest that things aren't as difficult as they are that that any suggestion that we should sustain and restrictions or whether it's personal responsibility or policy.

       And if you're working now so as you see the reality what you want politicians we want people to be driven by is the data and what's happening at the front line and and let's not be in the business of trying to make this less.”

       3 hours ago07:33 Rachel Hagan

       'An epidemic has been spreading and reaching such high numbers - it can't sustain those numbers'

       Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today Show, Director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and Jameel Institute Neil Ferguson said the impact of intergenerational mixing "remains to be played out."

       He continued: "I think I'm cautiously optimistic that infection rates in London in that key 18 to 50 age group which has been driving the Omicron epidemic may possibly have plateaued, it's too early to say whether they're going down yet."

       He says we might see a different pattern in hospitalizations and we may see high levels for for some weeks. He reminded listeners that both number of people in hospital with COVID-19 and the number of admissions to hospital has more than doubled in the last two weeks.

       He comtinued: "But its still quite a long way below the peak we saw before. That is good news. And what it shows is that vaccination is holding up in terms of protection against severe disease, assisted by the path of Omicron almost certainly substantially less severe, but it still puts pressure on the health system.

       An epidemic has been spreading so quickly, reaching such high numbers and it can't sustain those numbers forever. So we would expect to see case numbers start to come down in the next week.

       Whether they then drop precipitously or an initial drop and then quite a high plateau remains to be seen. It's just too difficult to interpret current mixing trends. I think the good news here is it is certainly less severe."

       3 hours ago07:29 Rachel Hagan

       'By the end of this week, we'll start to see what impact Christmas has on our overall numbers'

       Director of Public Health for Lambeth Council Ruth Hutt spoke to BBC Radio 4's Today Show and raised concerns over Christmas mixing and how we are yet to see the impact of that yet.

       Ms Hutt said: "The older population are at high risk of hospitalisation or severe illness, so that will certainly have an impact on NHS pressures. We're also seeing really high numbers so even if that rate plateaus, it's passing at a very, very high rate, which is impacting on other core infrastructure because people are self isolating, unable to come into work and some people are still quite poorly."

       She says by the end of this week, we'll start to see what impact Christmas has on our overall numbers and rates.

       3 hours ago07:27 Rachel Hagan

       Good morning

       Good afternoon, I'm Rachel Hagan and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments on Covid, for the next eight hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.

       Email: rachel.hagan@reachplc.com

       Twitter: @rachelhagan_