Plan B: Government announces home working and more mask rules in England

People in England are being asked to work from home again if possible and face masks will be compulsory in most public places, as part of new rules to limit the spread of Omicron.

Vaccine passports will also become compulsory for entry to nightclubs and large venues from next week.

Boris Johnson announced the government was moving to Plan B - its back-up plan of extra Covid rules.

"It's not a lockdown, it's Plan B," the prime minister told a press conference.

He said moving to the tougher measures was the "proportionate and responsible" thing to do.

Mr Johnson said more is still being learned about new variant Omicron, and the picture might get better, but that it "could lead to a big rise in hospitalisations and therefore sadly in deaths".

Many of the questions the PM faced were centred on the row over the Downing Street Christmas party at the height of lockdown rules last December.

Government adviser Allegra Stratton - who was seen with other No 10 staff joking about the party in a leaked video from last year - resigned just before the press conference, saying she would always regret her remarks, captured in the video.

Earlier Mr Johnson apologised in the Commons for the video, although said that he had been repeatedly told there had been no party.

Asked at the press conference whether the Plan B announcement was timed to divert attention from the Christmas party, the prime minister denied that was the case - saying the government did not want to delay bringing in the rules to protect public health.

The government's plan B - which was unveiled in September - is aimed at stopping the NHS coming under unsustainable pressure.

The measures just announced are:

There are currently 568 confirmed cases of Omicron in the UK, figures show - although scientists and Mr Johnson said the true total is likely to be higher.

Other nations of the UK - which are in charge of their own Covid rules - have already brought in stricter restrictions similar to Plan B.

Vaccine passports are currently required in nightclubs and other venues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and people in Wales and Scotland have already been told to work from home where possible.

Wales has said it is expecting a significant wave of Omicron that would peak in January, while Scotland's deputy first minister earlier warned that tougher rules could be brought in.

The measures introduced are not about stopping the spread of Omicron or even reducing the number of cases being seen - they are insufficient for that.

Instead, it is about slowing the spread. The big concern is a huge surge of cases that leads to a wave of hospital admissions that could overwhelm the NHS.

There are suggestions Omicron is leading to milder illness. There is logic in that as reinfections or infections post vaccination are less likely to lead to serious illness.

But if infections rise quickly enough there is still the risk of hospital cases rising. A variant that causes half the amount of serious illness will lead to more people ending up in hospital if infection rates more than double.

So the hope is that these measures will flatten and delay the peak. That will allow more boosters to go into arms - and the evidence that is emerging on vaccine effectiveness against the new variant suggests that will make an important difference to the spread of the virus.

There will be a debate and vote in the House of Commons next week on the new rules, said Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who made a statement to MPs at the same time as Mr Johnson's press conference.

After Mr Javid's statement, several Conservative MPs expressed their dismay at the introduction of tougher restrictions.

The health secretary said vaccine manufacturers may have new vaccines ready to trial "within weeks" to combat Omicron.

Scientists believe the variant could spread more easily than Delta, and could out-compete it to become the dominant variant in the UK.

But much is still unknown, and it could still take weeks to understand how severe illness from the variant is and what it means for the effectiveness of vaccines.

Earlier, government scientific adviser Prof Neil Ferguson said telling people to work from home would mean more time to give booster jabs. He said the variant was likely to overtake Delta to become dominant in the UK before Christmas.

But existing vaccines should still protect people from severe illness if they get Omicron, the World Health Organization has said.

Ministers have repeatedly said there are no plans for another lockdown in England.

Last week, the government changed the rules in England so that all contacts of suspected Omicron cases have to self-isolate for 10 days, even if they are fully vaccinated.

The UK said on Wednesday there had been another 51,342 confirmed cases of Covid, and a further 161 people had died within 28 days of testing positive.