The Health Secretary has cast doubt on the Prime Minister's pledge to end self-isolation on March 24, as he warned Covid may be "with us forever".
Boris Johnson told the Commons on Wednesday: "The self-isolation regulations expire on March 24, at which point I very much expect not to renew them.
"Indeed, were the data to allow, I'd like to seek a vote in this House to bring that date forward."
But Sajid Javid, asked on Sky News if self-isolation rules will be scrapped in March, said "all the rules remain under review", and added: "We will decide as we get closer to March... based on the data at the time. We would like to see it scrapped by the end of March."
On the day where the work from home guidance was abandoned as England races out of Plan B, Mr Javid cut a less optimistic tone, saying: "Covid is not going away, it's going to be with us for many many years, perhaps forever but we need to learn to live with it."
An ally of Mr Javid insisted he has been clear he wants to remove all remaining restrictions as soon as possible, and keeping the isolation rules beyond March would require a new Commons vote.
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Many people resumed commuting on Thursday after guidance to work from home in England was lifted as the Plan B measures were axed.
Location technology firm TomTom said road congestion levels - which represent the proportion of additional time required for journeys compared with free-flow conditions - were at 72 per cent in London and 63 per cent in Manchester at 8am on Thursday.
That is up from 66 per cent in London and 56 per cent in Manchester a week earlier.
Transport for London said 1.09 million entries and exits were recorded on the Tube network up to 10am on Thursday.
That is an eight per cent increase on the same period last week.
If children have chosen ‘anxiety’ as their word of the year, it is because Project Fear has taught them that this is the right way to feel, writes Jennie Bristow.
Read the full piece here.
Thailand will ease entry requirements for vaccinated visitors from all countries next month as concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus decline, officials said Thursday.
The country's tourism-dominated economy was devastated by travel restrictions imposed in 2020 to fight the spread of Covid-19.
The number of foreign tourists has remained low despite a relaxation of the restrictions last year.
Fully vaccinated travelers will be able to enter the country under the "Test and Go" program if they undergo a RT-PCR test on arrival and spend a night in a pre-booked hotel while awaiting results, and then have a second test and hotel stay five days later.
The visitor is responsible for the costs of the tests and hotels.
The sum might be galling, but there can be little doubt that it was a price worth paying to keep the economy on its feet, writes Henry Hill.
Read the full piece here.
Wickes has reported a fall in sales at the end of last year as the spread of omicron and higher numbers of self-isolating staff took their toll.
The home improvement retailer said its Do It For Me business, which pays traders to complete home improvement jobs, was hit by "a higher incidence of Covid disruption and self-isolation ahead of the holiday period".
This dragged down total like-for-like sales by five per cent over the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2020, though they were still 14 per cent above pre-pandemic levels.
Wickes its core DIY business was buoyed by a "strong performance in local trade" over the three month period, as home renovations continued to bolster order books for tradespeople. Like-for-like sales across last year were up 13.3 per cent on 2020.
Follow the latest business news on our live blog.
Without it we could face further delays in the global rollout and risk the gulf between the vaccine haves and have nots widening, Seth Berkley writes.
Read the full piece here.
France will unveil a timetable for easing Covid-19 restrictions later on Thursday, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said, though he cautioned the wave of omicron infections tearing through the country had not reached its peak.
Mr Attal said France's new vaccine pass rules would help allow a softening of rules even as the incidence rate of infections continues to increase.
France reported nearly half a million coronavirus infections on Wednesday to leave the seven-day average at 320,000 cases. However, the number of Covid patients in intensive care has stabilised, leaving the government some room for manoeuvre.
Attal declined to detail the plans for the progressive easing of restrictions, which include the closure of nightclubs, caps on the number of people allowed into sports and entertainment venues and working-from-home rules..
Prime Minister Jean Castex and his health minister, Olivier Veran, will unveil the timetable for unwinding restrictions at 7 p.m local time.
Ischgl hit the headlines in March 2020 following its Covid outbreak but the Austrian party town has cleaned up its act. Paul Nuki reports.
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Unvaccinated people who have caught and recovered from Covid-19 have better protection against the delta variant than those who have been double-jabbed but never caught the virus, according to data from the US government.
However, exposure to the virus as well as vaccination was found to give the best protection.
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) published data on Wednesday comparing protection against infection by immunity status.
It found that during the time when delta was dominant in the US, case rates in California among those who were vaccinated but had never caught Covid-19 were 6.2-fold lower than people who had no protection from either vaccines or infection. The comparative figure for New York was 4.5-fold lower than the unprotected baseline.
However, the CDC says that cases were 29-fold and 14.7-fold lower in California and New York, respectively, for those who were unvaccinated but had previously tested positive.
Joe Pinkstone has the full story.
The number of NHS staff at hospital trusts in England off work due to Covid has dropped week on week across every region of England, new figures show.
Some 29,517 NHS staff at hospital trusts in England were ill with coronavirus or having to self-isolate on January 16, down 26 per cent on the 40,031 the previous week.
But this is still more than double the 12,508 at the start of December, according to NHS England data.
The figures suggest one in 33 (three per cent) of NHS staff working in acute hospital trusts were off sick or self-isolating due to Covid on January 16, based on NHS Digital monthly workforce data for September for acute trusts, the most recent available.
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospitals of Derby and Burton Foundation Trust had the highest proportion of staff off due to Covid on January 16 based on their September headcount, all at seven per cent.
Africa's top public health bodies on Thursday called for donated Covid-19 vaccines to come with a shelf life of three to six months so countries could plan their rollouts and avoid a situation where doses expire.
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said 2.8 million doses of vaccine had expired on the continent, roughly 0.5 per cent of the 572 million doses delivered to date.
He said 10.4 per cent of Africans were fully vaccinated.
"In terms of the 0.5 per cent, let me be very clear, any dose of vaccine that expired pains me because that is a life that can be potentially saved," Mr Nkengasong told a news briefing.
In a separate briefing, the World Health Organisation Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, echoed Nkengasong's call.
Boris Johnson will pay the price for No 10's parties, but why aren't we just as outraged at the damage we've inflicted on the nation's youth, writes Joanna Williams.
Read her piece here.
The Russian capital on Thursday reported a record pandemic high of 11,557 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours and the daily nationwide number of new infections also rose sharply to 38,850, authorities said.
Moscow city mayor Sergei Sobyanin met President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in footage aired on state television and presented a report on the rapid spread of the omicron variant.
Ambulance handover delays at A&E departments in England improved slightly last week, though hospital pressures "remain high", figures show.
A total of 14,961 delays of at least 30 minutes were recorded across all hospital trusts in the seven days to January 16, representing 18 per cent of all arrivals.
This is down from 23 per cent in the previous week, which was the highest level so far this winter.
Some seven per cent of arrivals last week (5,610) took more than 60 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams, down from 10 per cent in the previous week.
The figures have been published by NHS England.
Travel testing for vaccinated arrivals must be ditched with the rest of Plan B rules, Theresa May, the former prime minister, has warned.
She urged Boris Johnson to scrap the current lateral flow tests required for all arrivals entering the UK as part of his pledge to allow people to “learn to live with Covid.”
Dropping the tests - which add ￡120 to the cost of a family of four’s holiday - is being backed by Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, and it is thought Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, is on board.
But the Prime Minister indicated travellers would have to wait for a “few days” for a final decision as he warned that travellers could also shortly require booster jabs in order to be able to travel abroad.
Charles Hymas has the full story.
Germany's health minister expects the number of coronavirus infections in the country to keep rising for several weeks before peaking next month.
Karl Lauterbach told German public broadcaster ZDF late Wednesday that "the wave will reach its peak roughly in mid-February."
Mr Lauterbach warned that while hospitalisation rates are currently low, clinics could see a severe strain in the coming weeks, noting that the share of people over age 50 who aren't vaccinated is significantly higher in Germany than in other European countries, such as Italy and Britain.
Germany's disease control agency reported 133,536 newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, and 234 deaths.
Boris and Carrie Johnson's six-week-old daughter was affected by Covid "quite badly", a source has revealed.
Downing Street last week announced that a member of the Johnson family had tested positive for the virus - without stating who was ill.
A source told The Daily Mail on Wednesday night that the Johnsons's daughter, Romy, had suffered from Covid but was now "on the mend".
The Prime Minister cancelled a trip to Lancashire last Thursday following the announcement, and only reappeared on Tuesday when he spoke to Sky News about "partygate".
Mr Johnson's official spokesman said last week: "The PM is following the guidance to do daily tests and limit contact with others, as I said [the] positive test was Wednesday so the PM will continue following this guidance up to [and] including Tuesday of next week.
Read the full story here.
The UK's omicron coronavirus wave has not led to an increase in the hospitalisation of the elderly that was expected despite there being more cases in that age group, Britain's science advisers said in advice published on Thursday.
"The increase in hospitalisations, which is anticipated following the observed increase in cases in older age groups, has not been seen so far," minutes from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) meeting on Jan. 13 said.
"This may be due to higher vaccine levels of protection against hospitalisation, slower waning of vaccine protection, or the impact of precautionary behaviours amongst the most vulnerable and those around them."
The use of face masks in classrooms - which is no longer a legal requirement as of today - made it "harder to teach children", Sajid Javid said.
"We do have to take this into account and when we are in a situation now, thankfully, where case numbers are falling, infection numbers are falling... We're starting to see hospitalisations falling throughout England, in most areas they're starting to fall.
"And prevalence although it's falling is still at a high level compared to where we've seen Covid before.
"But the big difference is the people that have come forward and got vaccinated. We now have over 90 per cent of over-50s vaccinated, boosted, and that is the highest proportion of any country in Europe."
Commuters have reacted with anger to the announcement by Sadiq Khan that passengers on Transport for London (TfL) services will still be required to wear face masks even after the national requirement is lifted.
On Thursday, workers began returning to the office again as the Government ditched its work from home guidance amid the falling of omicron cases in England.
From Jan 26, England will leave Plan B behind - a period of restrictions to combat the spread of the omicron variant which mandated the wearing of masks on public transport in England.
But London Mayor Sadiq Khan said wearing a face covering is one of the most important things people can do to prevent the virus from spreading, and said masks would remain on TfL.
Passengers in the capital were not happy with the move, with one saying: "No thanks. It’s not a legal requirement. So you will have no chance to enforce. No masks are needed now. Life goes on."
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Spain is spearheading calls for governments to start tackling Covid-19 as any other endemic respiratory virus like seasonal flu, despite WHO opposition and warnings that the approach is premature.
With governments and populations worldwide desperate for an end to the pandemic, discussion about when the virus might be reclassified has intensified.
"Spain wants to lead this debate because it is timely and necessary to do so," Health Minister Carolina Darias has said, adding that Spain asked the European Centre for Disease Prevention (ECDC) to "study new strategies" to deal with Covid.
Spain is in a good position to open the debate, having one of the world's highest vaccination rates with 90.5 per cent of its population over the age of 12 fully immunised.
But the question has sparked disagreement between governments seeking some sort of normality and some parts of the medical community which advocate keeping its guard up.
Australian Open organisers insisted on Thursday their Covid-19 protocols have been "really successful" despite some top players pointing to lax testing at the first Grand Slam of 2022.
Frenchman Ugo Humbert has tested positive and world number three Alexander Zverev of Germany believes there is probably more contagion going undetected.
The tournament director said all players had to test on arrival then again between day five and seven of the Jan. 17-30 competition whose start was overshadowed by the deportation of unvaccinated men's world number one Novak Djokovic.
"On top of that there's mandatory symptom testing and every single day each player is provided with an antigen kit that they can pick up at hotel or here on site," Craig Tiley told Australia's Channel 9.
"So far it's worked well and it's been really successful."
Austria's conservative-led government said on Thursday it was introducing a national lottery to encourage holdouts to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, hours before parliament was due to pass a bill introducing a national vaccine mandate.
"What is there to win in the vaccination lottery? Vouchers!" Chancellor Karl Nehammer told a news conference with the leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Pamela Rendi-Wagner, with whom the measure was negotiated.
Mr Nehammer said he wanted there to be a financial reward for those who get vaccinated, adding: "We have learned from the past and we have seen that a vaccination lottery is the best possible way to set up such a system."
Members of the public, whether already vaccinated or not, would get a ticket for each shot they have had - three tickets in total for those who have had their booster shot.
Every tenth ticket would win a 500 euro ($568) gift voucher, Mr Nehammer said, without specifying what the vouchers were for.
Nearly 30 generic drugs manufacturers signed an agreement to produce low-cost versions of Merck & Co's Covid-19 pill molnupiravir, the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) said on Thursday.
"The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announced today that it has signed agreements with 27 generic manufacturing companies for the manufacturing of the oral Covid-19 antiviral medication molnupiravir and supply in 105 low and middle-income countries," the MPP said.
Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF) has said it’s slashing around 400 jobs from its UK stores as sales struggle to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
The budget retailer said it had launched a consultation with staff as part of a shake-up designed to simplify the management structure of its UK stores.
It came as Primark said it had suffered a hit to trading due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant in recent weeks, as shoppers opt to stay at home.
The discount retailer reported a 36pc increase in sales compared to last year, when stores were shuttered due to lockdown. However, like-for-like sales remain 11pc below pre-Covid levels two years ago.
James Warrington has all the latest on our business live blog.
Covid certification entry requirements could be dropped across a number of hospitality settings in Northern Ireland, the First Minister has said.
Paul Givan said, while he would support the removal of mandatory certification entirely, he anticipated a majority of ministers in the powersharing administration will back proposals to retain the system in higher risk settings.
Mr Givan's comments come ahead of a meeting of the Executive on Thursday afternoon.
Laws requiring people to prove Covid status to gain entry to a range of hospitality venues and large-attendance events were introduced last November.
The move proved politically contentious with Mr Givan's DUP party voting against the scheme while the other four Stormont Executive parties backed it.
Sajid Javid has explicitly accepted there were parties in Downing Street when asked about the ongoing scandal on the Today programme.
"From what we already know, from the people that have come forward and apologised for the parties that took place, so for example the one on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral, that was completely wrong," he said.
"It was wrong in every single way and that is already damaging, of course it is.
"And the way we now get through this is to get the facts out, to get them on the table so we can all reach a judgement ourselves and have the Prime Minister, as he has said himself, he has taken full responsibility for anything that's happened in Downing Street. He will come to Parliament once the report is published and answer any question that is put to him. And that is the right way forward."
James Slack, Boris Johnson's former director of communications, last week apologised "unreservedly" after one of two parties on April 16, 2021 was held in his honour as he left his post. Mr Johnson was at Chequers and did not attend either event that night, Downing Street said.
Follow the latest Westminster developments over on our politics live blog.
Japan's western prefecture of Osaka and two neighbouring regions are expected to join in a widening declaration of Covid-19 prevention measures, Osaka's governor said on Thursday.
Japan added more than 41,000 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday as the omicron variant spread, a tally by national broadcaster NHK showed, breaking a record for two consecutive days.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided on Wednesday to expand the measures to cover the capital Tokyo and a dozen other regions. If the restrictions are widened to include Osaka and its two neighbors, 63 per cent of the nation's total population – or just under 80 million people – would live under the measure.
Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said the prefecture would hold a meeting on Friday to determine whether to apply for measures referred to as quasi-emergency that allow governors to request restaurants and bars shorten business hours and stop serving alcohol.
Mr Yoshimura said he was coordinating with the prefectural governors of Kyoto and Hyogo on making a joint request.
Austria's parliament is due to vote on Thursday on introducing a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for adults, the first of its kind in Europe.
The mandate drawn up by the government would apply to all residents of Austria age 18 and over, with exemptions for pregnant women, individuals who for medical reasons can't be vaccinated, and people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection in the past six months.
It appears assured of approval. Chancellor Karl Nehammer's governing coalition, made up of his conservative Austrian People's Party and the Greens, worked with two of the three opposition parties in parliament on the plan. The other opposition party, the far-right Freedom Party, vehemently opposes it.
The plan is for the vaccine mandate to become law at the beginning of February. To start with, authorities will write to every household to inform them of the new rules.
From mid-March, police will start checking people's vaccination status during routine checks; people who can't produce proof of vaccination will be asked in writing to do so, and will be fined up to 600 euros ($685) if they don't.
People who “did not realise” they were breaking the law have been fined for Covid rule breaches, it has emerged amid calls for an amnesty on fines in the wake of “partygate”.
More than 100,000 people have been fined for breaching various Covid regulations since March 2020, including 18,000 who received penalties for meeting outdoors during the pandemic, as Boris Johnson did.
It comes amid growing pressure on Mr Johnson for attending a gathering in the garden of Number 10 in May 2020, which he has defended by claiming no one told him it was against the rules.
It is one of a series of Downing Street parties which have led those fined for breaching strict lockdowns demanding they should have their penalties cancelled or refunded.
Now court documents have revealed that Mr Johnson is not the only one to plead ignorance over the rules.
Hayley Dixon has the full story.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said he will continue to wear a face mask going shopping when Plan B Covid restrictions lift in England.
Mr Javid said people would have to make their own "personal judgment" about what precautions to take as legal requirements come to an end.
"Will I be wearing a face mask? Yeah, I think I probably would be in a week's time," he told BBC Breakfast.
"Because prevalence is still high and there will be people there, especially if I am going to my local shop which is small and enclosed and can have quite a few people in there at one time in quite a small space, I don't know most of those people, I think that would be sensible.
"I think it will be sensible on the tube in London, for example - quite an enclosed space.
"People will be asked to make their own personal judgment just as we do in fighting flu."
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said he believes Boris Johnson is secure in his job despite calls from some Tory MPs for him to resign over lockdown parties in Whitehall.
Asked on BBC Breakfast if the Prime Minister was "safe in his job", Mr Javid said: "Yes, I think he is.
"At the same time, people are right to be angered and pained about what they have seen and they have heard. I share that anger and pain.
"I think it is right that there is a proper investigation going on that will establish the facts and that the Prime Minister will come back to Parliament and properly respond."
Mr Javid denied that the announcement on Wednesday of the lifting of Plan B Covid restrictions in England was about "saving the skin" of the Prime Minister.
"People would be wrong to think that," he said, adding it was the view of the Government's scientific advisers that the peak of the latest wave has been reached.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said David Davis's call for Boris Johnson to resign has been "damaging" to the Prime Minister.
In the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Davis urged Mr Johnson to stand aside, telling him "In the name of God, go".
Mr Javid told Sky News: "It is damaging, of course it is."
The Health Secretary said Sue Gray, the senior civil servant investigating reports of parties in Whitehall during lockdown, should be given the "time and space" to complete her inquiry.
He made clear that if Mr Johnson was found to have broken the law he would have to go.
"The Ministerial Code is very clear. If any minister from the Prime Minister down breaks the law, of course they shouldn't continue to serve as a minister," he said.
"What I have just said is a general rule that applies to everyone. There is no exception to that rule."
Facemasks will no longer be required in the classroom from Thursday, despite protests from teachers’ unions.
The move, announced by the Prime Minister on Wednesday, comes alongside the immediate lifting of guidance advising people to work from home if possible.
And Boris Johnson said the legal requirement for people with Covid-19 to self-isolate is set to be axed by March 24 - and earlier if possible.
He said that in future, the virus would be treated like flu.
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