It comes as GPs have said they do not have time to administer booster vaccines on top of routine health checks. 

Dr Farah Jameel, recently elected chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said that doctors needed to be relieved from other daily obligations, if they were expected to speed up the rollout of booster jabs. 

Of course, face masks once again became mandatory in shops in England from this morning. 

However Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said he will not be asking his staff to enforce the tighter Covid restrictions. 

Read on for a guide to where face masks are now mandatory.

Answer to our prayers

All this comes on a day when markets have again been rocked by the omicron variant.

Today’s slide was mainly promoted by Moderna’s chief executive, who predicted that existing vaccines are likely to be significantly less effective against the mutation.

Stéphane Bancel warned he expects there to be a “material drop” but markets rebounded when this was contradicted by BioNTech boss Ugur Sahin, who said that while the variant could lead to more infections among vaccinated people, they will most likely be protected from serious illness. 

If the disease turns out to have a milder effect, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard analyses how a benign omicron may be the answer to our economic prayers. 

Here is analysis on whether omicron causes severe disease or just a runny nose.

Javid walks reporter to jab

Who said politicians do not care about real people? 

Sajid Javid persuaded a journalist to get his booster and walked him to get his vaccine after being interviewed. 

The Health Secretary was being quizzed on Sky News by the broadcaster’s Chief Political Correspondent Jon Craig near St Thomas’s Hospital in Westminster on Monday night. 

The pair were chatting as they prepared for the interview outside the vaccination centre when Mr Javid asked the journalist if he had been for his booster jab. 

Mr Craig was not expecting the exchange would end with Mr Javid acting as a personal chaperone. Watch the clip of what happened.

Comment and analysis

Around the world: Zemmour’s French presidential run

Right-wing firebrand Eric Zemmour put an end to weeks of speculation today when he officially announced his bid to become France’s next president amid a sharp drop in the polls following a series of controversies including giving the finger to a woman over the weekend. Mr Zemmour, who has been likened to Donald Trump for his populist politics and divisive rhetoric, said he will take “destiny in his hands” as “now is not the time to reform France anymore, but to save it,” in a much-anticipated video message released on social media.

Tuesday interview

‘It’s harder than I expected at City but it’s nice being a £100m player’