Only the key events are shown.
17m ago
UKHSA says there are 10,017 confirmed Omicron cases in the UK.
26m ago
At 11.29am EST, the new date was added.
31m ago
The UK has a daily total of 78,610 new Covid cases.
At 11.29am EST, the new date was added.
52m ago
Omicron cases in Scotland increased by 140%.
The person is Severin Carrell.
The number of Omicron cases reported in Scotland jumped by 140% overnight, climbing from 110 new cases disclosed on Tuesday to 265 new cases on Wednesday, nearly doubling Scotland's cumulative total of confirmed Omicron infections to 561 overnight.
There are 220 and 142 cases in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board and the Lanarkshire health board areas.
In Scotland, the hospitalisations rates for confirmed Omicron cases are very low, with two reported on Tuesday, a tiny fraction of the 544 people in hospital with Covid.
National Records of Scotland said that the weekly deaths in Scotland where Covid was confirmed or suspected fell by seven to 84 in the week ending Sunday 12 December.
The data shows a continued decline in deaths from the Delta variant. The age-standardised rate for Covid-related deaths in Scotland fell to 95 per 100,000 people in November 2021, from 126 per 100,000 in October.
At 10.52am, we updated.
54m ago
Nicola Davis.
The UK Health Security Agency will double the availability of home delivery of Covid test kits to 900,000 a day by Saturday so that more people can get the tests. The agency stated that the number of tests will be increased by an additional 5.5 million tests per week.
The system will not hold up against Omicron, despite the UKHSA's claims that they are working to secure a further hundreds of millions of lateral flow tests and an increase in PCR laboratory testing capacity of up to 150,000 tests per day. The testing capacity will almost certainly fail to keep up with the variant according to Dr Jeffrey Barrett.
Jeffrey Barrett is a person.
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Even with best efforts we can't keep up with demand, even though we can scale supply linearly. Global supply chains of reagents, plastics, etc will struggle because this will happen everywhere at the same time.
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December 15, 2021.
1h ago
1h ago
Lady Hallett is a former appeal court judge.
At 10.25am.
1h ago
People are waiting outside a vaccine centre at the Science Museum.
The picture is from Wiskowicz/Nur Photo/REX/Shutterstock.
2h ago 10:00
Robert Halfon says the government isn't doing enough to prevent school closings.
Richard Adams.
Robert Halfon, the Conservative Member of Parliament who chairs the education select committee, has accused the government of allowing "de facto school closures" in England.
Halfon said the government was failing to take the steps needed to stop the widespread closing of schools. He said something.
The government wants to keep schools open, but what is the plan? What are the measures being taken to make sure that there is a network of supply teachers ready to step in if education staff are required to isolated?
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There is a nationwide campaign for volunteers in the health service. Why isn't a similar army of retired teachers being recruited to help schools cope with staffing requirements?
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Can we not have the same vision, passion, and resources for the education service as we do for the National Health Service?
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Despite the government's assurances, it seems to me that we are moving towards school closings. I want ministers to prove it.
The education minister said that a range of work was under way, including secondary schools testing pupils at the start of the new term before returning to school.
Stephen Morgan, a shadow education minister, accused the government of failing to act on expert advice to improve ventilation in classrooms going back to May 2020. Morgan said that the government could have solved the problem when the sun was shining.
It was updated at 10.02am.
2h ago
The introduction of checks on goods entering Britain from Ireland will be delayed.
2h ago
People are waiting at a vaccine clinic. Christopher Furlong is pictured.
2h ago
2h ago
The Labour party denied having an informal deal with the Liberal Democrats.
2h ago
2h ago
The PM's new booster jabs target was only warned by the health service.
2h ago
The chief executive of the National Health Service England says Omicron could lead to more Covid hospitalisations.
The public accounts committee is hearing evidence about the impact Covid will have on waiting lists. Sir Chris Wormald is the permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care.
The chair is occupied by Meg Hillier.
Are people being offered a booster vaccine before the end of the month or just the chance to book one?
It must be a credible offer. Some people will not be able to get jabbed before the end of the month because they are recovering from Covid.
The programme is being increased. 548,000 booster jabs were delivered yesterday. She says that is 70% more than the previous Tuesday.
She says the health service is doing this while it prepares for a large number of hospital admissions. She goes on.
The indications are that it could be as big as last year's wave.
There is a new date of 9.27amEST.
3h ago
Archie Bland.
A Conservative councillor and a former political director attended a Christmas party for a candidate for mayor of London.
The Daily Mirror published a picture of a group of people at an event in December, and one of them was a London councilman.
The statement on behalf of the Conservative Councillors in Bexley expressed shock and disappointment at the picture. The statement said that Wildman wouldn't stand for the Conservatives again at the election in May 2022.
Wildman was the political director of the Conservative party until May this year, when he joined Teneo as an associate director.
He didn't reply to the request for comment.
3h ago
No 10 has no plans for more Covid restrictions.
