It comes as pubs, restaurants and leisure businesses hit by omicron losses will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000 in a £1bn Christmas aid package announced by Rishi Sunak.
The Chancellor said some 200,000 hospitality and leisure businesses would benefit from the grants to compensate for an average 40pc fall in revenue from the Government’s Plan B restrictions in the run-up to Christmas.
However, the package is unlikely to satisfy hospitality and leisure chiefs. One business leader said it was “far too little and borders on the insulting”.
Ally Wolf, who manages the Clapham Grand in south London, says the chaos inspired by the Government is destroying local venues like hers.
Biden ‘not locking down US’
In the US, the White House has said Joe Biden does not plan on “locking the country down” in response to a surge in coronavirus cases.
Mr Biden, in a speech he is to deliver today, will stress the benefits of vaccination against Covid-19, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
His speech comes as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the omicron variant now accounts for 73pc of US infections based on sequencing data.
Yet faced with the omicron surge, a senior White House official said: “We have the tools to get through this wave.”
Indeed, Andrew Lilico argues that London’s omicron epidemic shows there are reasons to be optimistic about avoiding further restrictions in England.
Football an ‘exceptional risk’
However, the Boxing Day football calendar has been identified by scientists as an “exceptional risk” as authorities face pressure to follow Wales – and now effectively Scotland – in moving matches behind-closed-doors.
Public health experts warn the games immediately after Christmas will be “sporting superspreaders” akin to major events in March 2020 due to the more transmissible omicron.
If the Premier League matches sell out, 400,00 fans will cram into stadiums.
As scientists keep raising the possibility of restrictions, Iain Duncan Smith asks where is the modelling for the societal consequences of lockdown?
PS – Thanks again for sharing your unique family Christmas traditions to try to help your fellow Front Page readers enjoy this year’s festivities. Please do email yours to us here, with the subject line “Christmas traditions” and leaving your name, age and where you are from. Here is some inspiration from Crispin Williams from Croydon, south London:
“Our family Christmas tradition is to have a ‘forkful’ of brandy on our Christmas pudding. Once a portion is served, you pour brandy through a fork on to it. It’s great because it means you can have as much as you want without appearing greedy!”
Around the world: Drama as Haiti hostages escape
Twelve North American hostages held for months in Haiti orchestrated their own escape last week, hiking for miles under cover of darkness carrying young children, their church organisation said Monday. Christian Aid Ministries, which had provided little information on the 16 Americans and one Canadian who were kidnapped in mid-October, on Monday detailed the hostages’ ordeal and the mid-December escape of the final 12 hostages, a group that included a 10-month-old, a three-year-old and two teenagers, along with eight adults. Read on for details.
Comment and analysis
Tuesday interview
‘I live at home by myself and I think I will die by myself’
