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The matter of Covid test availability is not just being felt in the UK. In Australia, there's anger over test shortages after the government began restricting who is eligible to receive a PCR test free of charge last week.

The move came after tens of thousands of people spent hours queuing outside testing clinics around Christmas.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the new rules are aimed at alleviating pressure. But it has increased reliance on lateral flow tests - known locally as rapid antigen tests (RATs) - which people have to pay for and there have been reports of price hiking.

Morrison has argued pharmacies require certainty there will be a private market for the tests but critics say the new guidelines further disadvantage those on lower incomes, leaving them more exposed as the virus spreads.

The country lifted most of its strict domestic restrictions last month after reaching a 90% vaccination target. But the Omicron variant has fuelled a surge in cases - now totalling more than 25,000 a day.

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Last month, Israel announced it was planning to give fourth doses of the Covid vaccine to over-60s. It brought up questions again about whether regular boosters for people may become the norm for people living in rich countries such as the UK.

But Prof Andrew Pollard, who leads the group that developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, suggests it might not be needed or practical.

"It really is not affordable, sustainable or probably even needed to vaccinate everyone on the planet every four to six months," he tells the BBC's Today programme.

"We haven't even managed to vaccinate everyone in Africa with one dose so we're certainly not going to get to a point where fourth doses for everyone is manageable."

Pressed on whether the UK in particular might decide it is worth giving another booster to its population, Pollard says: "We don't have full certainty about what is needed here.

"We may well need to have boosters for the vulnerable in the population but I think it's highly unlikely that we'll have programmes going forwards regularly of boosting everyone over the age of 12. But identifying those who remain at risk despite having now had three doses is critical so they can be protected either through vaccination or improved treatments."

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Some residents under quarantine in the Chinese city of Xi'an have resorted to bartering supplies in recent days, as worries of food shortages continue.

About 13 million have been confined to their homes since 23 December, and are not allowed to leave to buy food.

Posts on social media show residents swapping supplies and even tech gadgets in exchange for food.

Videos and photos on social media site Weibo showed people exchanging cigarettes for cabbage, dishwashing liquid for apples, and sanitary pads for a small pile of vegetables.

One video showed a resident appearing to trade his Nintendo Switch console for a packet of instant noodles and two steamed buns.

Authorities have been providing free food to households, but some have said their supplies are running low or that they had yet to receive aid.

Read the full story here.

Katy Austin
Transport correspondent

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The latest figure for average rail staff absences is 9.9%, according to the Rail Delivery Group that represents the rail industry.

That means roughly one in 10 staff is off work.

As Covid sickness and isolation continue to affect crew availability, train operating companies including Scotrail, CrossCountry and LNER are running reduced timetables.

Passengers are also being warned of short-notice cancellations. Southern is not putting on any direct services to London Victoria - a major commuter hub – until next Monday.

A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group says: “We are working hard to provide the most reliable service possible and so that passengers can travel with confidence when fewer rail staff can work, a number of operators are introducing amended timetables." There are also some short-notice cancellations, the RDG says.

ScotRail’s managing director, Alex Hynes, says 160 out of 2,000 daily services – about 8% - are being cancelled as part of a reduced timetable in place until 28 January.

He tells the Today programme the measure was being taken to improve reliability: “Over the last few weeks, because of the record number of Covid cases, we’ve been cancelling too many trains. So we’ve decided to pro-actively put this revised timetable in, to give customers greater certainty on the services we can offer”.

He said "hundreds" of ScotRail’s 5,000 employees are absent from work either because they have Covid or because they are having to isolate as part of a household.

You can read more here.

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Several hospitals have declared critical incidents as they face staff shortages due to Omicron - meaning they are resorting to emergency plans.

The boss of NHS Confederation - which represents health leaders - says this is happening because the situation is becoming "almost impossible".

Matthew Taylor tells Times Radio that even without Covid the NHS is 100,000 people short, and that the problem with staff absences is that it is unpredictable.

"You don't know where somebody is going to get sick and, when somebody does get sick, it's then more likely that other people in that team will get sick and hospitals and healthcare systems are complex, they're inter-dependent," he says.

He adds hospital admissions seem to have "perhaps plateaued in London or there may be a second peak after the new year now" - but that hospitalisations are rising across the rest of Britain.

He says the next few weeks are going to be "very, very difficult", and suggests "there's a kind of almost politicised attempt to suggest that things aren't as difficult as they are".

People working in the health service "see the reality", Taylor says, and he urges politicians to be driven by the data, which should become clearer by the start of next week.

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Prof Neil Ferguson says he is “cautiously optimistic” that infection rates in London in the 18-50 age group – which has been driving the Omicron wave – may possibly have plateaued but it’s too early to say if they’re going down yet.

But he warns: “This epidemic has spread so quickly in that group, that it hasn’t had time to really spread into the older age groups which are at much greater risk of severe outcomes and hospitalisations.

“So we may see a different pattern in hospitalisations. Hospitalisations are still generally going up across the country and we may see high levels for some weeks.”

He says daily case numbers – which have been above 100,000 for nearly two weeks - are not as useful as they used to be because some regions have been running out of tests, says Ferguson.

“Almost certainly case numbers, true infection rates have been much higher than that. Also they don’t include reinfection… and about between 10 and 15% of Omicron cases are reinfections.”

He says the epidemic has been spreading so quickly and can’t sustain case numbers at that level forever, so scientists expect case numbers to come down in the next week to three weeks.

Adam Fleming
Chief political correspondent

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The government has prepared a plan to prioritise vulnerable people and some workers in key sectors for Covid testing if there is a shortage of tests, a government source has confirmed.

They stressed the UK was already conducting more than 1.5 million tests per day, and prioritisation would only be introduced if needed.

The list is unlikely to be as broad as "all key workers", as mooted in the Daily Telegraph. And vulnerable people means patients and workers in healthcare settings.

Ministers continue to meet daily to assess shortages of workers in areas of the economy.

There will be a ministerial statement to Parliament tomorrow about the scheduled review of Plan B measures.

It has not been decided whether it will be delivered by the PM or the health secretary.

Leading epidemiologist Prof Neil Ferguson says that before Christmas, Delta and Omicron were generally spreading among different age groups.

Delta infections were driven by school-age children and older age groups, he says, while Omicron was affecting those in the middle 18 to 45 age group.

“Omicron didn’t have much time to get into school children before schools shut, and we expect to now see quite high infection levels of mild infection in school-age children," says Ferguson, whose modelling led to the first nationwide restrictions.

He tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Omicron is certainly less severe than other variants – “probably a two thirds drop in the risk of dying from Omicron” – but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a difficult few weeks for the NHS.

It’s a big day for school pupils in England and Northern Ireland as the new term starts.

The government’s vaccines minister Maggie Throup says she’s confident there are enough tests for the millions of pupils returning to school. Pupils in England are being tested when they get to school, while in NI children are being urged to test at home beforehand.

And asked about the teacher shortages because of self-isolating, Throup says the government has appealed for retired and ex-teachers to come back to the profession.

“It’s important everybody pulls together to make sure the children can continue to get that face to face teaching which is so vital for them," she tells BBC Breakfast.

But pressed on how many former teachers have actually returned, Throup says “people are coming back all the time” and “the numbers will vary in different parts of the country”.

“It’s a matter of thousands of people who have come forward to say they will play their part,” she says.

Welcome to our live coverage of the Covid pandemic.

We’ll be bringing you updates throughout the day.

Our top story this morning is on the return to school for millions of children in England and Northern Ireland – but many fear too many teachers will be off work self-isolating.