Enjoy New Year but be cautious

People should enjoy themselves but be cautious when celebrating the New Year, UK care minister Gillian Keegan has said.

Revelers should take a lateral flow test before going out and celebrate in well-ventilated areas, she advised.

The government is not imposing further Covid restrictions in England, but there are limits on socializing in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The hospitality sector described the decision not to add further measures as a "lifeline" for pubs, bars, and clubs.

Ms Keegan said while people should try to enjoy themselves, the Omicron variant of coronavirus was "highly infectious" and they needed to exercise caution many business listings.

There has been an increase in cases and people were going into hospital with Covid, Ms Keegan said, adding that the government was watching the data "all the time".

NHS England data shows there were 1,281 Covid-19 hospital admissions on Christmas Day - the highest number for any day since 16 February.

Care Minister Gillian Keegan says people should enjoy the New Year cautiously

Ms Keegan also said 214,000 people had received their booster jab over the Christmas weekend and a total of 32.4 million had now received the third dose.

Earlier, environment Secretary George Eustice said the evidence on Covid cases and admissions did not support more interventions at the moment but the government would keep its decision not to impose further curbs in England under review.

Record levels of demand for Covid PCR tests have left some people waiting for up to five days to receive their results over Christmas - meaning they had to self-isolate until they receive their negative result.

The UK Health Security Agency apologized and said action had been taken to add extra capacity to its laboratory network business listings.

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Pubs, bars, and restaurants have been hard hit in the run-up to Christmas, due to mass cancellations over Omicron fears.

UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the decision not to go beyond Plan B measures in England would give "a real lifeline" to many businesses.

But there are also calls for more support - Adnams brewery boss Andy Wood told BBC Radio 4's Today program more than half of the Christmas business had been lost.

Ms Keegan said the government had introduced a £1bn package to support businesses before Christmas.

Schools worry

Concerns have also been raised about the impact on hospitals and schools of staff having to self-isolate.

Prof Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, told BBC Breakfast that in time people with Covid should be allowed to "go about their normal lives" as they would with a common cold free business listings.

"If the self-isolation rules are what are making the pain associated with Covid, then we need to do that perhaps sooner rather than later," he said.

He suggested this might be able to happen "once we're past Easter", depending on the effects of the disease at that time.

Prof Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University told the Today program the decision not to introduce new curbs before the New Year is "probably fine"; with data showing "very low" numbers of vaccinated people in intensive care.

He said the Omicron variant was "not the same disease" we had seen a year ago and added he thought "the horrific scenes that we saw a year ago" were "now history".

Staff quarantining was putting additional stress on the health service, Sir John said, and lateral flow tests were "quite a good way" of showing that was infectious - rather than cutting isolation periods as has been done in the US.

Restrictions do not stop Covid; they just buy time by delaying its spread.

Last winter that time was used to roll out the vaccine program, which meant when cases started to rise as restrictions were lifted the population was better protected.