Schools have been warned that more testing will be needed because wearing masks in the classroom is not a "magic bullet" to curb the spread of Covid.

       As pupils return to school this week, in England they will have to wear masks again in secondary schools, as has been the case in Wales and Scotland since before Christmas.

       But this new measure alone is not enough, says Catherine Noakes, Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings, who specialises in indoor air quality at the University of Leeds.

       She told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme: "There's no magic bullet here. So, ventilation on its own won't do it, masks won't do it.

       "We need masks and ventilation and all sorts of other measures including things like testing and vaccination in order to control this virus and we've seen that throughout the pandemic."

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       More evidence is emerging that the omicron coronavirus variant is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants, a World Health Organisation Official has said.

       Asked about whether an omicron-specific vaccine was needed, Abdi Mahamud, WHO Incident Manager, said it was too early to say but stressed that the decision required global coordination and should not be left to the commercial sector to decide alone.

       French government officials have vowed to enact a law to block unvaccinated people from hospitality venues by mid-January, despite the legislation hitting a procedural hitch in parliament.

       "January 15 remains our goal," for the law coming into force, Clement Beaune, European Affairs Minister told LCI television.

       Until now France has enforced a Covid-19 health pass, which means in order to get into restaurants, cafes or cinemas or board trains, people need to either show a fresh negative test, or proof of vaccination.

       The legislation will remove the option of showing a negative test, effectively barring unvaccinated people from hospitality venues or trains.

       It has faced fierce resistance from anti-vaccination campaigners and far-right and far-left groups, but is backed by the government which has a majority in parliament.

       Thailand's health ministry on Tuesday called on people to come forward to get booster vaccinations after reporting cases of the highly contagious omicron coronavirus variant had more than doubled over the holiday period.

       The Southeast Asian country has recorded 2,062 cases of the omicron variant so far, health official Supakit Sirilak told a news conference, up from 740 cases before the holidays.

       Health authorities have warned of the risk of a surge of infections after the holidays when people travelled home and gathered at restaurants for celebrations.

       Up to now, Thailand has vaccinated 64.1 per cent of an estimated 72 million people in the country with two doses, government data shows, while officials said only 9.8 per cent had received a third booster shot.

       Beijing has sealed up its Winter Olympic "bubble", preparing the Games venues, transport and staff for the world's strictest mass sporting event since the pandemic began.

       China, where the virus emerged toward the end of 2019, has pursued a zero-tolerance strategy on Covid-19 and is taking the same approach to limit the pandemic's potential impact on the February 4-20 Winter Olympics and subsequent Paralympics.

       Starting today, thousands of Games-related staff, volunteers, cleaners, cooks and coach drivers will be cocooned for weeks in the so-called "closed loop" with no direct physical access to the outside world.

       The global media and roughly 3,000 athletes are expected to start arriving in the Chinese capital in the weeks ahead and will remain in the bubble from the moment they land until they leave the country.

       Anyone entering the bubble must be fully vaccinated or face a 21-day quarantine when they touch down, and everyone inside will be tested daily and must wear face masks at all times.

       Germany has relaxed restrictions on travel from the UK, South Africa and seven other southern African countries that were imposed following the emergence of the new omicron coronavirus variant.

       The nine nations were removed from Germany's list of "virus variant areas" today.

       Airlines and others are restricted largely to transporting German citizens and residents from countries on that list. All arrivals must self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of vaccination status.

       Germany's national disease control center had announced on Thursday that it planned to downgrade the countries' risk status but said at the time that "short-term changes" were possible.

       Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, the driving force behind the AZ jab, says that the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Miranda Levy reports.

       Read the full piece here.

       A wave of coronavirus infections should be expected in children as schools reopen but there is "good news" about the lack of severe omicron cases, according to Professor Neil Ferguson.

       Prof Ferguson, whose modelling led to the introduction of the first restrictions in March 2020, was appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning.

       "Omicron slipped in the middle in 18 to 45-year-olds really but it didn't, as we heard, have much time to get into school children before schools shut," he said. "We expect to now see quite high infection levels, of mild infection I should emphasise, in school age children.

       "I think the good news here is it is certainly less severe, we think about one-third drop in the risk if you've never been infected before, never had a vaccine, about a one-third drop in the risk of just any hospital admission, probably a two-thirds drop in the risk of dying from omicron, so substantially less severe and that has helped us, undoubtedly."

       Rail passengers were hit by disruption on the first working day of the year in England and Wales due to a combination of faults and coronavirus-related staff shortages.

       Stuart Lovell was left stranded at St Mary Cray when his 7.18am South Eastern service didn't stop.

       The provider said: "I am so sorry this didn't stop at the station.

       "The train service manager has informed me there was a shortage of train staff at the station earlier, thus services where unable to stop."

       A number of other people said they had been left unable to get to work on time due to cancellations. Demand for rail travel is at around 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, which is partly due to Government guidance that people should work from home.

       Gareth Davies has more here.

       Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told Sky News there are "very large numbers of cases in the community but still very good control of severe disease as a result of vaccination".

       Asked if he is worried about complacency, he said: "No, I don't think we are being complacent at all, actually.

       "Today we're in a situation where there's very good monitoring - much better than it was before globally - trying to understand how best to make sure that everyone in the world is protected as well as is possible, and now we're in this new period of transition to work out, now that there's very high levels of immunity in countries like ours, how do we transition to the situation where society is open, and we maintain protection of the vulnerable in the population?"

       He said that has been managed so far with third doses of vaccines, adding that learning how to live with the virus is "going to be the critical next step".

       Minister for vaccines and public health Maggie Throup said Plan B "is working".

       Asked if the Government was listening to health professionals and prepared to bring in more restrictions, she told Sky News: "As the Prime Minister said yesterday, we have got Plan B, which is people working from home, the Covid pass, face coverings and obviously the vaccine programme, which is so, so important."

       She added: "Plan B is working, as you can see from the number of hospitalisations, it's far, far fewer than this time last year and that's so important as well, that the vaccines are working, the measures for people to work from home are working.

       "The Prime Minister said that Plan B is working and there'll be a Cabinet meeting today, and I don't see any reason why we need to change. It's important we do follow the data."

       On the current number of NHS trusts who have declared critical incidents, minister for vaccines and public health Maggie Throup said: "It is fast moving and that's why it would be wrong of me to actually say a number because quite shortly there could be another one or another trust could actually say 'no, we're back on track now and we're okay' and it's a mechanism that's been put in place in the past."

       Asked about the number of NHS trusts which have had critical incidents because of staff shortages, she told Sky News: "I think the critical incidents are announced and then they can be very short-term ones and it's saying to the other trusts around 'can we have some extra help, can we have some mutual aid'."

       An infectious disease expert - nicknamed Professor Lockdown - said he was "cautiously optimistic" that Covid cases are beginning to plateau in London.

       Professor Neil Ferguson, who specialises in the patterns of spread of infectious disease, told the BBC Today programme: "I think I'm cautiously optimistic that infection rates in London in that key 18-50 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 added: "I would say that with an epidemic which has been spreading so quickly and reaching such high numbers, it can't sustain those numbers forever, so we would expect to see case numbers start to come down in the next week, maybe already coming down in London, but in other regions a week to three weeks.

       "Whether they then drop precipitously or we see a pattern a bit like we saw with Delta back in July - of an initial drop and then quite a high plateau - remains to be seen, it's just too difficult to interpret current mixing trends and what the effect of open schools again will be."

       Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the NHS did not want staff going back into hospitals with Covid and risk passing it on.

       He told Times Radio that reducing the self-isolation period to five days should only be done if the science "said it was absolutely safe".

       On the outlook, he said: "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 as the Prime Minister has said, that when omicron has gone through us that we make it to that stage and the NHS will recover.

       He added that the judgment on restrictions "needs to be driven by the data and what's in the best interests of the country", adding: "It shouldn't be driven by a kind of political virility symbolism, where the sooner we can be free, the better it is, regardless of the effects. Let's carry on being driven by the data."

       Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said hospital admissions seem to have "perhaps plateaued in London or there may be a second peak after the new year now, but it's rising across the rest of Britain".

       He told Times Radio that, often, for many hospitals "the most pressing element of all" was the number of staff who are absent due to Covid.

       He said that even without Covid, the NHS is 100,000 staff short, "so we have a long-term failure in terms of workforce planning and resourcing".

       Minister for vaccines and public health Maggie Throup said she was "not sure" how many Britons were currently in self-isolation.

       She told Sky News: "I'm not sure of that (actual) figure, but I think what's shown over Christmas is that a lot of people have caught the disease, the omicron variant is very transmissible, but what is good news, it doesn't seem to be resulting in severe diseases as some of the other variants did."

       She added: "Well, not everybody declares that they're self-isolating, I think that's one important thing, that it's something that they do because they've tested positive or they've been in contact with somebody whose tested positive, they don't have to report that in.

       "The vaccine is working and that's the best way to stop the transmission, and to stop hospitalisations and for our life to get back to normal."

       Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

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

       Sir Andrew said there was no point in trying to stop all infections, and that “at some point, society has to open up”.

       He also suggested that “misinformation” about the risks of the AstraZeneca vaccine - espoused by European leaders including Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, and Angela Merkel, former leader of Germany - was “highly likely” to have cost lives in Africa.

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