It comes as travel industry bosses blasted the reintroduction of pre-departure tests for fully vaccinated travellers returning to the UK.
The measure, which was announced by the Government over the weekend and comes into force at 4am on Tuesday, comes despite Transport Secretary Grant Shapps telling the Telegraph just a few days earlier that such a move could “kill off the travel sector again”.
Meanwhile, Nigeria has accused Britain of a “travel apartheid” by adding the African country to its red list.
Our travel liveblog will have any more developments.
Omicron dominant ‘in weeks’
It looks increasingly likely we will have to learn to live with omicron, after a scientist specialising in emerging infectious disease said it will become the dominant strain of Covid in the UK “within weeks”.
Professor Paul Hunter, from the school of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said there was current concern that omicron “is spreading rather more quickly than the Delta variant” and there were probably more than 1,000 cases in the UK at the moment.
Professor Tim Spector, the professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, has said don’t leave the house if you have a cold, as one in three are “actually due to Covid”.
Meanwhile, Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert, the co-creator of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, has warned that a future pandemic could be “more contagious” and “more lethal” than Covid-19, urging against complacency when preparing for new disease threats.
Heart condition ‘mild’
Some of the misinformation touted by anti-vaxxers concerns the health implications of being vaccinated.
Data show that coronavirus vaccines increase the risk of a person developing myocarditis, a condition which is characterised by inflamed cardiac muscle, with the risk highest in young boys and after the second dose.
However, the rare heart-related health condition induced by the vaccine is mild and resolves quickly, according to scientists.
Read how it shows vaccines are safe, highly effective and fundamental to saving lives – and ending the pandemic.
Comment and analysis
Around the world: Suu Kyi jailed by military regime
A court in Myanmar has sentenced ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in prison, the first verdict in multiple charges that could put the Nobel Peace Prize winner behind bars for the rest of her life. The ruling was condemned by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who called her sentence “another appalling attempt by Myanmar’s military regime to stifle opposition and suppress freedom and democracy.” Ms Suu Kyi, 76, was detained and put under house arrest by the junta when it seized power in a February coup and has since been hit with 11 charges that have combined maximum sentences of more than 100 years.
Monday interview
‘Mum’s last six months were the worst’