There is a reasonable degree of certainty that the Omicron variant is more transmissible than Delta, "perhaps considerably so", Nicola Sturgeon says.

The first minister adds that early data suggests it is more capable of infecting people who have previously had the virus.

There is also concern it may evade the immunity provided by vaccination, she says.

However, she says vaccination remains "vitally important".

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is delivering her Covid update to MSPs. She says it would be "inappropriate" to lift any of the measures in place in Scotland given the significant risks posed by the Omicron variant.

She tells the Scottish Parliament that in light of the "rapidly developing" situation, the need for additional measures will be kept under daily review.

As we've reported, there have been a total of 99 confirmed cases of Omicron in Scotland - an increase of 28 since yesterday.

Data suggests the doubling time for Omicron cases may be as short as two to three days, Sturgeon says. And the R number - which represents the average number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to - could be well over two.

There are now confirmed cases in nine out of 14 health board areas in Scotland, “suggesting that community transmission is becoming more widespread and possibly more sustained”, she says.

There have been a further 101 cases of the Omicron variant confirmed, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says.

It takes the total number of cases confirmed in the UK to 437.

Of those new cases, 72 are in England, 28 in Scotland and one in Wales.

It means there have been a total of 333 cases in England, 99 in Scotland and five in Wales.

None have been identified in Northern Ireland.

Image source, Getty Images

Back to the situation in the UK now. A leading scientist says it is "extremely likely" the UK will get a "very large wave of infections" as a result of the Omicron variant.

Prof Andrew Haryward, a member of the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme that evidence from South Africa and the UK suggests cases of Omicron are doubling every two or three days.

By contrast, when cases of Delta have increased recently, the doubling time was two or three weeks, he says. This means Omicron can "very rapidly" replace and overtake Delta, which is currently dominant in the UK, he adds.

The speed of its spread may mean cases peak before there is the opportunity to increase immunity through booster jabs - and immunity may also be weaker against the new variant so the only remaining option is more social distancing measures, the professor of infectious diseases says.

He adds that it's too early to say Omicron is milder than previous variants and its effect on the elderly population remains to be seen.

"Say for example it was half as severe as the previous strains, if you have three times as many cases, that’s still more hospitalisations than we would otherwise have had," he explains.

“With it increasing so fast you can get a very, very, very high peak and that's what threatens the NHS capacity.”

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, EPA

Poland will tighten Covid-19 restrictions in the face of the Omicron variant and introduce mandatory vaccinations for medical staff, teachers and the uniformed services from 1 March 2022, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has said.

From 15 December, nightclubs and discos will close, and the maximum number of people allowed in restaurants, bars, hotels, cinemas, theatres, churches and sporting venues will be reduced from 50% to 30% capacity.

If a venue wants to increase numbers, it can only admit additional fully vaccinated people.

Staff will be required to check customers’ vaccination certificates, something they generally do not do now.

Furthermore, the maximum number of passengers on public transport will be cut to 75%, and schools will return to online learning between 20 December and 9 January. Pre-schools will remain open.

Anyone - including the fully vaccinated - arriving in Poland from 15 December from outside the Schengen area will be required to take a PCR or antigen test up to 24 hours before they depart.

Poland reported 19,366 new Covid infections and 504 virus-related deaths on Tuesday.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Reuters

Although the Omicron variant has not reached Taiwan, many train stations and supermarkets across the country are now introducing new vaccination points to encourage more people to get inoculated as a precaution.

The PX Mart, external and Carrefour supermarket chains have agreed to begin vaccinations at stores across the island.

The Taipei Main Station, a key transport hub providing railway, metro and bus service links, has also set up a vaccination site and is offering jabs with the Moderna vaccine. Other train stations in the cities of Changhua and Yuanlin are planning to follow suit, the Taiwan News website reports.

The service does not require an appointment, external and according to Taiwan News, the success of yesterday’s drive at the Taipei Main Station has led to an expanded service. More than 2,000 people received vaccines yesterday at the transport hub, the website reports, external.

There have been no local cases of Covid-19 in Taiwan for over a month. However, there are fears of a local outbreak today, as five ship workers have tested positive, external for the virus subsequent to completing quarantine.

According to official data, more than 78% of Taiwan’s population have so far received one vaccine dose, and 61% are fully vaccinated. Some 9,000 people have received booster shots.

Taiwan has a population of 23.5 million people.

Image source, Reuters

Here's some more detail on the World Health Organization (WHO) warning we just mentioned.

Europe regional director Hans Kluge has cautioned against making Covid vaccines mandatory. He said this should be "an absolute last resort and only applicable when all other feasible options to improve vaccination uptake have been exhausted".

Austria has already announced plans to introduce mandatory vaccinations for all by February, and some other European nations might follow the suit.

Europe is currently seeing a spike in infections, and the WHO has recently warned there could be as many as 500,000 more Covid-related deaths across the continent by 1 March 2022.

The WHO's Europe region comprises 53 countries and territories, including Israel and several Asian nations.

The UN's public health agency also voiced concern about rising Omicron cases - but stressed that the fight should still be focused on the currently dominant Delta variant.

"The problem now is Delta and however we succeed against Delta today is a win over Omicron tomorrow, before it eventually surges," Kluge said.

Mandatory vaccinations: Three reasons for and against

Image source, EPA

If you are just joining us this lunchtime, here's a recap of what's going on:

• Boris Johnson has told his cabinet that early indications suggest the Omicron variant is more transmissible than Delta - although it is still too early to tell for certain
• The prime minister has also said that the UK's booster programme is the "fastest in Europe" and has suggested that a cut in the time between second and third doses will be introduced from Monday
• Welsh officials have warned that a "significant wave" of Omicron is expected there as they said all adults would be offered a booster vaccine by the end of January
• Vaccine mandates should be a last resort, the World Health Organization says, after suggestions European countries may follow Austria's lead in making them compulsory
• Back in the UK, international travellers have been speaking of their confusion after changes to travel testing rules were introduced in response to the Omicron variant

Sean Coughlan
BBC News, education correspondent

We've been bringing you some reaction to the new travel testing rules from Gatwick airport.

Among those travelling today is Jenny Kentjens, who is heading to Cape Town and has spent about £100 on testing. She says how tough that would be for a whole family.

She also says the change of rules has caused confusion - but this has been a trip to visit grandchildren who she hasn’t seen for two years.

One of the staff organising a Covid testing service at the airport says it means stress and often ends in "people shouting at us".

"It’s what happens," she says, as another parade of wheelie bags rolls past.

Sean Coughlan
BBC News correspondent at Gatwick

In Gatwick airport there is stress and confusion about the new rules on Covid testing for travellers.

"I’m in panic now, every step of the way is stress. It’s misery," says a 73-year-old trying to sort out her test for a flight to Italy.

It’s become a wormhole of online forms and lost passwords, she says, holding up an iPad that has her testing details that won’t work.

She’s visibly upset and angry and doesn’t want to give her name, but she says all she can feel about the testing rules, beyond the £70, is anxiety.

Yvonne Bailey, waiting to meet her daughter off a flight from Jamaica, says Covid testing has cost them £400, a huge increase on what she thought the trip would cost.

"It’s awful, stressful, a drain-out," she says, standing near the shining lights of the airport Christmas tree.

But Corinne, also waiting for a Jamaica flight, says the testing is a "good idea".

She’s a nurse who caught Covid from a patient and has seen its consequences and understands the value of more testing, as well as backing vaccines and boosters.

Here's a reminder of the UK's travel rules that we've been reporting on today.

Boris Johnson has been speaking to broadcasters during a visit to a prison.

He says the UK's booster programme is the "fastest in Europe" and says "I think we've done more boosters than any comparable country".

But he says this does not mean it could not go faster.

He says from Monday the interval between a person getting their second dose and being able to get their third or booster dose will be reduced to three months - in line with the recommendation from the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination.

"You go down to three months and that will mean a big uptick as well," he says, as he urges people that "now is the time to get it (the jab)".

The prime minister is also asked about reports of a party at Downing Street during lockdown last year but he insists that no rules were broken.

"What I can tell you is that all the guidelines were observed - continue to be observed," he says.

Image source, PA Media

More schools and businesses will close in the run-up to Christmas, warns Scotland's national clinical director.

Prof Jason Leitch has told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme he expects such closures to be repeated across the country.

"This is how we've dealt with each of the variants as they have arisen," he says.

A primary school in Renfrewshire has already been forced to shut for a week after a suspected outbreak of the new coronavirus variant caused staff to isolate.

Leith says: "Unfortunately, there will be occasions where a hospitality setting or a school or an office will have to close because of Omicron for a little while until we know more."

Read more.

We've been bringing you updates from Wales where the health minister Eluned Morgan says they are expecting "a significant wave of Omicron to hit" - with a peak expected by the end of January.

She says this is why there is an urgency in getting people vaccinated.

Wales has announced measures to combat the new variant including:

• All adults in Wales will be offered a booster vaccination by the end of January
• 12 to 15-year-olds will be offered a second dose
• Additional help has been requested from the military to allow some parts of Wales to double the number of vaccinations provided
• The aim is to increase the number of vaccinations from 19,000 a day to more than 200,000 a week

We have some more from the prime minister's official spokesman.

He says there is "no hard agreement on the level of transmissibility" and the impact of Omicron will "depend on the severity".

While there was no debate on moving to the government's Plan B for winter earlier, the spokesman says "we can move to Plan B if required" and can move swiftly - with work on Covid certification already undertaken.

Speaking to MPs on Monday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that as each day went by there was a "little bit more information" on Omicron, and that he thought by next week there would be more, with samples being analysed at the UK's Porton Down laboratory and across the globe.

He added: "I will just caveat that by saying I can't make any guarantee about how much information we will have. I am sure there will still be many unanswered questions at that point."

Meanwhile, we've been keeping up to date with what Welsh health minister Eluned Morgan has said during a Covid update in Cardiff.

She says the Omicron variant is a "worrying new development" and we have to "prepare for cases to rise quickly and sharply" - adding it is expected to take over from Delta as the dominant variant.

While there is still a lot that is unknown about the variant, she says people need to do everything they can to protect themselves, including increasing vaccination.

She ends by saying that getting a booster is the "best Christmas present you can give yourself and your family this year".

Dr Gill Richardson, deputy chief medical officer, says there are enough supplies of Pfizer and Moderna jabs to make sure everyone gets a booster, and the aim is to offer 200,000 boosters a week in Wales.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told his cabinet that the Omicron variant of coronavirus appears to be "more transmissible" than Delta, Downing Street says.

Giving an account of the meeting on Tuesday morning, the prime minister's official spokesman says while Johnson said it was "too early to draw conclusions" on the new variant "the early indications were that it is more transmissible than Delta".

But, the spokesman says, there was no debate around the cabinet table on whether to introduce Plan B of the government's plans to control the virus this winter, external.

Image source, ZAIN AHMAD

Covid vaccination rates among black and south Asian people remain lower than other groups so Radio 1 Newsbeat's Alice Evans has been finding out more about the possible reasons behind vaccine hesitancy.

Zain Ahmad, who is British-Pakistani, has had his first and second doses and is getting his booster jab this week.

But the 20-year-old medical student says "a lot" of his South Asian friends back home in Buckinghamshire don't want the vaccine because they "are not sure about the evidence or the safety".

The vaccines approved for use in the UK have met strict safety standards and scientists have repeatedly said the serious complications of Covid itself are a far greater risk to people than any rare complications associated with vaccines.

Zain thinks more South Asian people might have the jab if there was better education and clearer messaging around the benefits of vaccines, as well as better trust of the government and the healthcare system.

Read more.

Image source, Reuters

At least 68 staff at a Spanish hospital’s intensive care unit in Málaga have tested positive for Covid-19 after going to a Christmas party.

Health authorities investigating the outbreak suspect the virus may have been spread at a party attended by more than 170 people last Wednesday.

At least half of those in attendance were isolating after coming into close contact with the medics who contracted the virus.

The infected staff were all fully vaccinated and are showing no symptoms, health authorities said.

Most of them are ICU doctors and nurses who took negative antigen tests before the event.

The large outbreak has heightened concerns about the risk of spreading Covid at social events during the Christmas period.

Hospital staff in Andalusia had been advised not to attend Christmas parties to mitigate that risk.

On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged people to not "let their guard down" to Covid over the holidays.

Like many European countries, Spain has recorded an increase in Covid infections in recent weeks as experts express concern over the spread of the Omicron variant.

We are expecting updates on Covid from both the Welsh and Scottish government's this afternoon.

Wales' health minister has already announced that all adults will be able to get a booster jab by the end of January, in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant.

So far there have been 336 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant across the UK.

Of the confirmed cases, 261 are in England, 71 in Scotland and four in Wales - while Northern Ireland is yet to have a confirmed case.

Speaking on Monday, UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that as far as he was aware none of those people had been admitted to hospital.

We'll bring you updates from both those announcements right here.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Getting a handle on how fast Omicron is spreading in the UK is difficult at the moment.

Confirming cases takes some time and less than a fifth of infections diagnosed are sent off to labs to check the variant.

So assumptions are being made on positive tests that give a quirky result - known as S-gene dropout.

Although the technology to spot S-gene dropout is only available at half of sites – so it still does not give the full picture.

Latest figures show about 0.2% of cases processed at those labs have this. But not all of these will be Omicron.

Based on this complex set of data, experts believe the new variant could be spreading four times faster than Delta.

That would give Omicron a bigger advantage over Delta than Delta had over Alpha, the variant that dominated in the UK last winter before being replaced.

But as these are based on relatively small numbers of cases there is huge uncertainty over what will happen and when.

In South Africa, rates of Delta were so low that Omicron never really had to compete against it.

What is more, the UK has many more vaccinated people and by the week, growing numbers are getting boosted.

And when Omicron does take over – as seems likely – what this means for serious illness is not yet clear.

It will be weeks before scientists can give more certainty.