Headlines

By Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of COVID-19 measures introduced to curb the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in England as he looks to live with the virus after a peak in cases.

Johnson’s light touch approach to dealing with the highly transmissible Omicron variant saw him introduce work-at-home advice, more mask-wearing and vaccine passes to slow its spread, stopping short of more onerous restrictions seen globally.

While cases soared to record highs, hospitalisations and deaths have not risen by the same extent, in part due to Britain’s booster rollout and the variant’s lesser severity.

Johnson’s pledge to avoid lockdowns and live with the virus contrasts with a zero tolerance approach to COVID-19 in China and Hong Kong, and tougher restrictions in many other European countries.

“Many nations across Europe have endured further winter lockdowns… but this government took a different path,” Johnson told lawmakers, saying the government had got the toughest decisions right and that numbers going into intensive care were falling.

“Our scientists believe it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally… because of the extraordinary booster campaign, together with the way the public have responded to the Plan B measures, we can return to Plan A.”

Johnson said that none of the so-called Plan B measures would remain in England, as face masks would not be legally enforced anywhere, COVID passes would not be mandatory and advice to work from home would end.

He cited Office for National Statistics figures that showed infection prevalence levels falling from a record high.

But scientists warned that cases could still turn higher again if people’s behaviour returned to normal quickly.

“Removing Plan B measures in the face of extremely high levels of infection is a risk,” University of Warwick virologist Lawrence Young said.

“Perhaps it would have been wiser to wait for another couple of weeks before removing the advice to work from home and the face coverings mandate. There’s no guarantee that infection levels will continue to fall.”

PANDEMIC ‘NOT OVER’

Johnson has faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic overall, and Britain has reported 152,513 deaths, the seventh highest total globally. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have followed their own anti-coronavirus measures, generally with tougher restrictions, but have also begun to ease them.

Johnson hopes to reset his agenda following furore over the lockdown gatherings at his office, which has some in his party plotting to remove him.

The lifting of Plan B measures, along with the navigation of Omicron without resorting to a stringent lockdown, could help Johnson appease vocal opponents of restrictions in his own caucus amid the party unrest.

He said if data supported it, he may end the legal requirement for people to self-isolate if they test positive before the regulation lapses in March.

“But to make that possible, we must all remain cautious during these last weeks of winter,” he said, warning of continued pressure on hospitals.

“The pandemic is not over.”

(Reporting by Alistair Smout, additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Angus MacSwan and Toby Chopra)

By Subrat Patnaik

(Reuters) -Microsoft Corp is buying “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in the biggest gaming industry deal in history as global technology giants stake their claims to a virtual future.

The all-cash deal announced by Microsoft on Tuesday, its biggest-ever acquisition, will bolster its firepower in the booming videogaming market where it takes on leaders Tencent and Sony.

It also represents the American multinational’s bet on the “metaverse”, virtual online worlds where people can work, play and socialize, as many of its biggest competitors are already doing.

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said.

Microsoft’s offer of $95 per share represents a premium of 45% to Activision’s Friday close. Shares of Activision were at $83.35 in early trading.

The deal comes at a time of weakness for Activision, maker of games such as “Overwatch” and “Candy Crush”. Its shares have slumped more than 37% since reaching a record high last year, hit by allegations of sexual harassment of employees and misconduct by several top managers.

The company is still addressing those allegations and said on Monday it had fired or pushed out more than three dozen employees and disciplined another 40 since July.

CEO Bobby Kotick, who said Microsoft reached out to him for a possible buyout, would continue to be the CEO of Activision following the deal.

In a conference call with analysts, Microsoft boss Nadella did not directly refer to the scandal but talked about the importance of culture in the company.

“It’s critical for Activision Blizzard to drive forward on its renewed cultural commitments,” he said, adding “the success of this acquisition will depend on it.”

‘METAVERSE ARMS RACE’

The global gaming market was valued at $173.70 billion in 2021, and is expected to reach $314.40 billion by 2027, according to research firm Mordor Intelligence.

Microsoft can already claim a significant beachhead in the gaming world as one of the big three console makers. It has been making big investments including up “Minecraft” maker Mojang Studios and Zenimax in multi-billion dollar deals in recent years.

It has also launched a popular cloud gaming service, which has more than 25 million subscribers.

Executives talked up Activision’s 400 million monthly active users as one major attraction to the deal and how vital these communities could play in Microsoft’s various metaverse plays.

Activision’s library of games could give Microsoft’s Xbox gaming platform an edge over Sony’s Playstation, which has for years enjoyed a more steady stream of exclusive games.

“The likes of Netflix have already said they’d like to foray into gaming themselves, but Microsoft has come out swinging with today’s rather generous offer, which would make Microsoft the third largest gaming company in the world,” said Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Tech companies from Microsoft to Nvidia have placed big bets on the so-called metaverse, with the buzz around it intensifying late last year after Facebook renamed itself as Meta Platforms to reflect its focus on its virtual reality business.

“This is a significant deal for the consumer side of the business and more importantly, Microsoft acquiring Activision really starts the metaverse arms race,” David Wagner, Equity Analyst and Portfolio Manager at Aptus Capital Advisors said.

“We believe the deal will get done,” he said, but cautioned “This will get a lot of looks from a regulatory standpoint.”

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who are considering a long list of antitrust bills aimed at reining in Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook, will be skeptical of this transaction, said Andre Barlow of the law firm Doyle, Barlow & Mazard PLLC.

“Microsoft is already big in gaming,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee, Eva Mathews and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru, Kenneth Li in New York, Diane Bartz in Washington, Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Writing by Pravin Char; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Carmel Crimmins)

By William Schomberg and Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s economy grew strongly in November to finally surpass its size just before the country went into its first COVID-19 lockdown, official data showed on Friday.

The world’s fifth-biggest economy expanded by a much faster than expected 0.9% in November – before the latest wave of COVID-19 infections and restrictions for many firms – leaving it 0.7% bigger than it was in February 2020, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast monthly gross domestic product growth of 0.4% for November.

“It’s amazing to see the size of the economy back to pre-pandemic levels in November – a testament to the grit and determination of the British people,” finance minister Rishi Sunak said.

Other economies have already recovered their pre-COVID size, chief among them the United States.

Britain’s economy shrank by more than 9% in 2020, one of the biggest pandemic slumps among the world’s rich nations.

Despite November’s growth acceleration, GDP probably took a fresh hit in December when the Omicron coronavirus variant swept Europe, and the loss of momentum is likely to have stretched into January with many firms reporting severe staff absences and consumers still wary of going out.

On Thursday, data showed record levels of staff absence due to COVID-19 around the turn of the year.

But health officials think the Omicron infections wave has now peaked in Britain and analysts say the blow to the economy is likely to be short-lived, allowing the Bank of England to continue raising interest rates this year.

The ONS said, data revisions aside, GDP in quarterly terms would reach or surpass its pre-coronavirus level in the October-December period of 2021, as long as economic output does not fall by more than 0.2% in December.

The BoE’s current forecasts show GDP returning to its size at the end of 2019 in the first quarter of 2022.

EARLY CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS, MASS JABS

The ONS said retailers had a strong November – when many consumers bought Christmas presents earlier than usual – while architects, couriers and accountants also had a bumper month.

Construction recovered from several weak months as raw materials became easier to source after problems in global supply chains.

The country’s rush to give booster vaccinations against COVID-19 and its test-and-trace programme provided extra momentum to the GDP figures.

Britain’s economy will still face challenges in the months ahead, even once coronavirus restrictions known as “plan B” are relaxed.

Consumers are facing an inflation rate that is expected to reach a 30-year high of 6% or more in April – when energy tariffs will leap by an estimated 50% – and an increase in social security contributions also starting that month.

“While the UK economy should rebound once Plan B measures are lifted, surging inflation and persistent supply chain disruption may mean that the UK’s economic growth prospects remain under pressure for much of 2022,” Suren Thiru, head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce, said.

Sterling edged up against the U.S. dollar and the euro after the GDP data.

Separately, the ONS released trade data showing that Britain’s goods trade deficit narrowed slightly to 11.3 billion pounds in November from 11.8 billion pounds in October.

Imports from non-European Union countries were higher than from EU countries for the 11th consecutive month, and the gap was at its widest point of the year, the ONS said.

Britain’s trading relationship with the EU has been hit by the introduction of new post-Brexit rules after the country left the bloc’s single market at the start of 2021.

(Writing by William Schomberg and Alistair Smout; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Toby Chopra, Peter Graff)

DIGIDOE, the London-based startup which is on a march to revolutionise the world’s outdated payments infrastructure, has secured more than £850,000 from new investors.

The initial funding round was closed early because of high levels of customer interest in DigiDoe’s unique next generation, fraud-inhibiting, multi-currency payments system.

DigiDoe is the first company in the UK to offer biometrics-based payments to merchants without the presence of a card or phone.

Led by investment firm, Joint Journey, which takes pride in capitalising on market and technology trends, and several individual investors, the fresh funding amounts to £852,500. It gives DigiDoe a 12-month runway to enhance its proprietorial technology.

Alexandra Vidyuk, co-founder and executive director of DigiDoe, said: “It’s immensely encouraging to have customers knocking at the door so early in DigiDoe’s journey, as we revolutionise the creaky payments infrastructure that businesses have to deal with every day.

“While cash has gone out the door and card and phone payment capabilities have soared in recent months, behind the scenes the global payments system is still stuck in the dark ages. DigiDoe is changing all that and more. With our secure, fraud-free solution all you’ll need to pay for dinner in future is your smile.”

DigiDoe is already trialling its patented multi-factor biometrics-based 7D user authentication technology which leverages the latest technological and biometrics advances including secure channel “signatures”.

Sergey Dashkov, co-founder at Joint Journey, said: “DigiDoe’s cutting-edge technology unleashes the payments system of tomorrow, and we are thrilled to be part of that journey. The payments infrastructure of today is ripe for disruption and we believe DigiDoe is the disruptor to succeed.”

Designed from scratch, Digidoe’s efficient payments system reduces fraud, cuts fees and costs for merchants, enables ultra-low cost, hassle-free payments which eliminate the need for plastic cards or mobile phones to complete transactions.

While current credit card providers can generate around 60,000 transactions per second, DigiDoe can generate 200,000 per second.

By Dominique Vidalon and Aislinn Laing

PARIS (Reuters) – France imposed travel restrictions on travellers from Britain on Thursday due to surging COVID-19 cases there, and several European countries also strengthened border controls on visitors from other EU states.

Plans for Christmas celebrations in Europe and many countries across the globe have been thrown into disarray by the rapid spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant, which emerged in Hong Kong and Southern Africa last month.

Britain on Wednesday recorded its highest number of daily coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic. That prompted the French government to announce on Thursday that only certain categories of travellers, including truck drivers, would be allowed between the two countries. Anyone arriving from Britain would have to self-isolate.

“Our goal is to limit as much as possible the spread of Omicron across our territory,” French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said. “Tourism and business travel for people who are not French nationals or Europeans, people who are not French residents, will be limited.”

British hospitals were struggling to maintain staffing levels due to people having to isolate with COVID-19, a senior medic told Reuters. The 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth canceled a pre-Christmas lunch with her family as a precaution.

Sweden said it would require visitors from other Nordic nations to have a vaccine pass amid a jump in new infections in recent days.

Across the globe in Asia, South Korea said spiraling infections meant it too would reinstate strict rules constraining gatherings and closing restaurants, cafes and bars early.

The new wave of infections and the return to tighter restrictions comes just weeks before the second anniversary of the emergence of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Since then more than 5 million people have died of COVID-19 globally and more than 272 million cases have been reported.

Meanwhile, more than 8.5 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to combat the disease – an effort that is now challenged by the Omicron variant’s outburst.

ROUND THE BLOCK

At a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, tensions arose after Italy, Portugal and Greece said they would require people crossing their borders to have a negative COVID-19 test as well as a vaccine passport.

Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said freedom of travel inside the EU’s border-free Schengen Area must not end.

Around Europe, vaccination booster campaigns and the administration of first doses to children aged 5 to 11 generated long queues that snaked around city blocks as hospitals, pharmacies and clinics struggled to cope with demand.

Preliminary data show vaccines are less effective against Omicron, but a booster increases protection.

England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty said vaccinations could cut the numbers admitted to intensive care and shorten the time spent in hospital.

Travel operators and retailers said the tightening of COVID regulations would hit them hard in the run-up to Christmas.

Officials at the port of Dover on the British side of the Channel said France’s new travel curbs would dampen already significantly reduced tourist numbers.

British online fashion retailer Boohoo issued its second profit warning in four months, citing factors including a rise in partywear return rates amid canceled Christmas parties.

Weekendesk, a Spanish holiday website, said cancellations jumped 19% from the previous week and blamed a new requirement for vaccine passports in Catalonia, Valencia and Andalucia.

SPORTING LIFE

The impact was also being felt across the world of sport, from international and elite level down to grassroots.

Hundreds of amateur clubs in Britain across a range of sports have cancelled weekend fixtures and closed clubhouses, despite there being no government advice to do so.

A fourth Premier League match of the week was cancelled on Thursday after Brentford manager Thomas Frank called for all games in the coming week to be postponed to allow clubs to recover their depleted squads.

The Swedish national soccer team cancelled a planned friendly against Finland, while teams and leagues in the three major North American sports were trying to avoid cancellations after a massive outbreak of positive tests among players.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux, Writing by Aislinn Laing in Madrid, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

By Michael Erman and Deena Beasley

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc on Tuesday said final analysis of its antiviral COVID-19 pill still showed near 90% efficacy in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients, and recent lab data suggests the drug retains its effectiveness against the fast spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The U.S. drugmaker last month said the oral medicine was around 89% effective in preventing hospitalizations or deaths when compared to placebo, based on interim results in around 1,200 people. The data disclosed on Tuesday includes an additional 1,000 people.

Nobody in the trial who received the Pfizer treatment died, compared with 12 deaths among placebo recipients.

The Pfizer pills are taken with the older antiviral ritonavir every 12 hours for five days beginning shortly after onset of symptoms. If authorized, the treatment will be sold as Paxlovid.

“It’s a stunning outcome,” Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said in an interview.

“We’re talking about a staggering number of lives saved and hospitalizations prevented. And of course, if you deploy this quickly after infection, we are likely to reduce transmission dramatically,” Dolsten said.

Pfizer also released early data from a second clinical trial suggesting that the treatment reduced hospitalizations by around 70% in a smaller trial of standard-risk adults, including some higher-risk vaccinated people. The results were not statistically significant, but Pfizer said they showed a “positive data trend for reduction in risk.”The trial did not show that the drug alleviated symptoms of COVID-19 in the same population.

The results in standard-risk individuals are from interim analyses at 60% and 80% of enrollment of the now fully-enrolled trial of over 1,100 people. Pfizer will continue the trial and release more data when its done.

Dolsten said he expects authorization for use in high-risk individuals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies soon. He does not believe an FDA advisory panel meeting will be needed.

“We’re in very advanced regulatory dialogues with both Europe and the UK, and we have dialogues with most of the major regulatory agencies globally,” Dolsten said.

Pfizer submitted data to the U.S. FDA last month, asking for emergency use authorization of the drug.

The FDA’s decision could come within a matter of weeks, if not days, said Zarina Saidova, an analyst at Moscow-based Finam Holdings, as the new data confirms what the company previously disclosed and submitted to the regulator.

Saidova expects Paxlovid to generate $15 billion to $20 billion in revenue next year, a significant boost for the company in the face of a potential decline in vaccine sales.

There are currently no oral antiviral treatments for COVID-9 authorized in the United States.

Rival Merck & Co has asked for emergency use authorization of its antiviral pill molnupiravir. But that drug only reduced hospitalizations and deaths in its clinical trial of high-risk patients by around 30%.

Some scientists have also raised safety concerns about the potential for birth defects from the Merck drug, as well as worries that it could cause the virus to mutate.

Pfizer’s drug works differently. It is part of a class of drugs called protease inhibitors currently used to treat HIV, hepatitis C and other viruses.

Pfizer shares fell 0.8% to $54.75 in trading before the bell, while Merck shares were flat at $72.69.

Dolsten said recent laboratory testing showed that activity against the protease of the Omicron variant is as “good as basically any SARS-COV-2 variant of concern.”

The company has said it can have 180,000 treatment courses ready to ship this year and plans to produce at least 80 million more in 2022.

Dolsten said Pfizer is looking to expand that output further as new variants, like the newly-discovered Omicron, could push the need for antivirals substantially higher. Current vaccines appear to be less effective at preventing infection with Omicron.

Pfizer, which makes one of the leading COVID-19 vaccines with German partner BioNTech, has agreed to allow generic manufacturers to supply versions of the drug to 95 low- and middle-income countries through a licensing agreement with international public health group Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). However, Dolsten said that for next year he expects the drug will be mainly produced by Pfizer.

The U.S. government has already secured 10 million courses of the Pfizer drug for $5.29 billion.

(Reporting by Michael Erman in New Jersey and Deena Beasley in Los Angeles, Additional reporting by Mrinalika Roy; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Anil D’Silva and Nick Zieminski)

(Reuters) – Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2021, a year that saw his electric car company become the most valuable carmaker in the world and his rocket company soar to the edge of space with an all-civilian crew.

Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, and leads brain-chip startup Neuralink and infrastructure firm The Boring Company. Tesla’s market value soared to more than $1 trillion this year, making it more valuable than Ford Motor and General Motors combined.

Tesla produces hundreds of thousand of cars every year and has managed to avert supply chain issues better than many of its rivals, while pushing many young consumers to switch to electric cars and legacy automakers to shift focus to EV vehicles.

“For creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations, Elon Musk is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Edward Felsenthal, said.

“Even Elon Musk’s spacefaring adventures are a direct line from the very first Person of the Year, Charles Lindbergh, whom the editors selected in 1927 to commemorate his historic first solo transatlantic airplane flight over the Atlantic.”

From hosting Saturday Night Live to dropping tweets on cryptocurrencies and meme stocks that have triggered massive movements in their value, Musk has dominated the headlines and amassed over 66 million followers on Twitter.

Some of his tweets have also attracted regulatory scrutiny in the past.

According to the magazine, “The Person of the Year” signifies somebody “who affected the news or our lives the most, for better, or worse.”

Time magazine named the teenage pop singer Olivia Rodrigo as its “Entertainer of the Year”, American gymnast Simone Biles “Athlete of the Year” and vaccine scientists were named “Heroes of the Year”.

Last year, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were jointly given the “Person of the Year” title. Time began this tradition in 1927. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have also received the title in the past.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

By Stephanie Nebehay and Ludwig Burger

GENEVA (Reuters) – The Omicron coronavirus variant, reported in more than 60 countries, poses a “very high” global risk, with some evidence that it evades vaccine protection but clinical data on its severity is limited, the World Health Organization says.

Considerable uncertainties surround Omicron, first detected last month in southern Africa and Hong Kong, whose mutations may lead to higher transmissibility and more cases of COVID-19 disease, the WHO said in a technical brief issued on Sunday.

“The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high for a number of reasons,” it said, reiterating its first assessment of Nov. 29.

At least one patient has died in the United Kingdom after contracting the Omicron variant, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.

The WHO said there were early signs that vaccinated and previously infected people would not build enough antibodies to ward off an infection from Omicron, resulting in high transmission rates and “severe consequences”.

It is unclear whether Omicron is inherently more contagious than the globally dominant Delta variant, the WHO said.

Corroborating the WHO’s assessment, University of Oxford researchers published a lab analysis on Monday that registered a substantial fall in neutralising antibodies against Omicron in people who had had two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

While the antibody defences from courses of AstraZeneca vaccine and BioNTech/Pfizer have been undermined, there is hope that T-cells, the second pillar of an immune response, can prevent severe disease by attacking infected human cells.

THRESHOLD OF PROTECTION?

A number of vaccine recipients did not produce any measurable neutralising antibodies against Omicron, the Oxford researchers said. One of them, Matthew Snape, said it was not yet clear how pronounced the real-world decline in vaccine efficacy will be.

“We don’t know how much neutralising antibody is enough. We still haven’t really pinned down what is the threshold of protection,” Snape said, adding the best advice for the not-yet-vaccinated is to seek an initial course and for those vaccinated to get booster shots.

The Oxford researchers said there was no evidence yet Omicron caused more severe disease.

Their findings were broadly in line with another lab analysis last week on the blood of twice-vaccinated individuals conducted by researchers at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria.

The analysis also registered a significant drop in antibodies reacting to Omicron, with many blood samples showing no response at all.

Both the Innsbruck and the Oxford teams said they would widen their research to those who had three vaccine shots.

Pfizer and BioNTech said last week that two shots of their vaccine may still protect against severe disease, because its mutations were unlikely to evade the T-cells’ response.

They also said a third booster shot restored a level of antibody protection against Omicron comparable to that conferred by a two-shot regimen against the original virus identified in China.

The WHO cited preliminary evidence that the number of people getting reinfected with the virus has increased in South Africa.

While early findings suggest that Omicron may be less severe than the Delta variant, more data is needed to determine whether Omicron is inherently less dangerous, it said.

“Even if the severity is potentially lower than for the Delta variant, it is expected that hospitalisations will increase as a result of increasing transmission. More hospitalisations can put a burden on health systems and lead to more deaths,” it said.

Further information was expected in coming weeks, it added, noting the time lag between infections and outcomes.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Editing by William Maclean, Robert Birsel and Barbara Lewis)

By Kylie MacLellan and Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not planning further restrictions in England to contain the significant growth of the Omicron coronavirus variant, his spokesman said on Friday, as Scotland warned the variant could become dominant within days.

Johnson, who sets health rules in England, introduced his “Plan B” COVID-19 measures on Wednesday, ordering people to work from home, wear masks in public places and use vaccine passes to slow the spread of Omicron.

While there are currently 817 genomically confirmed cases of Omicron in the United Kingdom, health minister Sajid Javid has said it is spreading in the community, and on Wednesday estimated the number of Omicron infections as closer to 10,000. Britain has reported more than 50,000 daily COVID-19 infections overall for three of the last four days.

“There is significant growth of Omicron here in this country and we are seeing early signs of vaccine escape,” the spokesman said, adding scientists needed more time to study the variant.

Asked about the possibility of a “Plan C” of further restrictions being put in place, he said: “There are no plans to go beyond what we have set out already, obviously we need to keep the characteristics of this variant under review and we would act if necessary but there are no plans.”

The UK Health Security Agency has said that Omicron has a growth advantage over the dominant Delta variant but that there is insufficient data to make an assessment of the severity of illness caused or protection against severe disease given by vaccines or previous infection.

Senior minister Michael Gove on Friday is chairing a meeting with the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, who control their own health policies, about co-ordinating their responses to the latest COVID-19 data.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Omicron could become dominant in the nation early next week.

She said that while she hoped that people who got Omicron might have more mild disease, that was not a guarantee, and the rapid growth in cases would cause problems for the National Health Service nevertheless.

“Given the volume of people who could be infected by Omicron because of its greater transmissibility, even if most of those cases are mild, the number of cases of serious illness amongst those infections will put massive strain on the ability of the NHS to cope,” she said at a news conference.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Alistair Smout; Editing by Alison Williams)