New restrictions are unlikely to stop Christmas celebrations this week but Boris Johnson has urged caution amid speculation further measures will be needed to halt the spread of the Omicron variant. But as the Prime Minister promised to keep the data under constant review, the Queen abandoned her Christmas at Sandringham and London mayor Sadiq Khan cancelled the capital’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. But although Mr Johnson stopped short of imposing new official restrictions, the Prime Minister said the Government wants people to focus on “exercising caution”. The Prime Minister said the arguments for taking action in response to Omicron were “very, very finely balanced” and that the Government is keeping the data under “constant review”. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said it was part of the job of ministers to scrutinise any advice they were given.

Source: The Times December 21, 2021 01:25 UTC