Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that despite the high number of coronavirus cases being recorded in the UK there was a “chance” that extra restrictions would not be needed in England.

“Our position today differs from previous waves in two crucial respects. First, we now know that omicron is milder than previous variants, so while hospital admissions are rising quickly… this is not yet, thankfully, translating into the same numbers needing intensive care that we saw in previous waves,” he said.

“Second, thanks to the fantastic national effort to get Britain boosted, we now have a substantial level of protection, higher than any of our European neighbours, with over 34 million boosters administered, including in England reaching more than 90 per cent of the over-70s and 86 per cent of the over-50s.

“And so, together with the Plan B measures that we introduced before Christmas, we have a chance to ride out this omicron wave without shutting down our country once again.”

Read the latest Covid-19 news: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/covid-news-omicron-tests-lateral-flow-vaccine-schools-cases/

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