Image source, PA Media

We'll soon be bringing our rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic to a pause for today. But before we do, here is a recap of the main stories.

• World number one tennis player Novak Djokovic has had his visa to enter Australia dramatically revoked upon his arrival in Melbourne, amid a backlash against his vaccine exemption. Djokovic had been granted the exemption to play in the Australian Open, but border officials said he did not meet entry rules. He is now in a government detention hotel, with a court set to decide on Monday whether he should be deported
• Djokovic's parents held a press conference in which they said he was being held prisoner by the authorities
• Boris Johnson has described people opposed to Covid vaccines as speaking "mumbo jumbo". The prime minister said those spreading false information on social media about the jabs were "totally wrong" and it was time for him "to call them out"
• About 1.3 million people in the UK have "long Covid" - symptoms lasting more than four weeks after an initial infection - an Office for National Statistics, external survey suggests. Of those people, 892,000 first caught the virus at least 12 weeks ago, while 506,000 were infected at least a year ago
• Health leaders have warned the NHS is facing a "staffing crisis", with more than 20 trusts on the highest level of alert. The NHS Confederation said a number of hospitals were reporting up to 10% of staff as being either in self-isolation due to Covid or as off sick for other reasons
• The world is facing a "tsunami" of coronavirus, the World Health Organization has declared, as it called for richer countries to better share vaccines with the developing world. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said that although the Omicron variant appeared to be milder than the previously-dominant strain Delta, it was still killing people and overwhelming health systems

Today's live page was edited by Paul Gribben and written by Alex Kleiderman, Alex Therrien, Nathan Williams, Jack Hunter, Mary O'Connor and Adam Durbin.

Italy has recorded 219,440 new Covid cases - its highest-ever daily number since the start of the pandemic.

That's up on 189,109 infections recorded on Wednesday.

And 177 more people have been admitted to intensive care units, up from 132 on Wednesday.

As it tries to battle the surge, Italy's government has made it compulsory for over-50s to be vaccinated against Covid.

Image source, Getty

What has the reaction been in Serbia to Novak Djokovic and his attempted participation in the Australian Open tennis championships?

The country's president, Aleksandar Vucic, has led a chorus of outrage in Belgrade, the scene of a rally by supporters outside the Serbian parliament.

Djokovic's parents say the tennis star is being treated like a criminal as he awaits a ruling on whether he is to be deported from Australia.

Read more here from BBC Balkans correspondent Guy Delauney.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, Novak Djokovic has had his visa for Australia revoked, after he was granted an exemption from Covid vaccination rules.

We've taken a look at what he has actually said about vaccines:

• In April 2020, well before Covid vaccines were available, Djokovic said he was "opposed to vaccination".
• He later clarified his position by adding that he was "no expert" and would keep an "open mind" but wanted to have "an option to choose what's best for my body."
• During a Facebook live session, he explained that he "wouldn't want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine" to travel or compete in tournaments.
• He added that he was "curious about well-being and how we can empower our metabolism to be in the best shape to defend against imposters like Covid-19."

Read the full piece here.

Image source, Reuters

Portugal is relaxing restrictions, with children going back to school from next week and night clubs reopening from 14 January – despite a record Covid surge.

PM Antonio Costa says it's "evident" Omicron is less severe and vaccination has been "effective". That's why the country has seen a "lower number of hospitalisations, fewer people in ICU and deaths", he says.

The country hit a daily record of nearly 40,000 infections on Wednesday.

It registered 25 deaths on Thursday, but that's far fewer than the 300 daily deaths during the previous peak in January.

A work from home order is also being ditched from 14 January.

However, people flying into Portugal will still need to provide a negative Covid test.

Matt Precey
BBC Look East

Image source, Eastern Daily Press

An NHS hospital has taken "extreme measures" to pack more beds into rooms and require patients to wear masks.

An email seen by the BBC from the chief nurse at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals (NNUH) NHS Trust says it is a "battle situation".

Chief nurse Prof Nancy Fontaine asked staff to fit seven beds in bays meant for six, with less space between them.

She said the "extreme measures" had been taken as a short-term response to an "unprecedented emergency".

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

A fresh raft of Covid restrictions will be introduced in Austria from Saturday, including new rules on wearing masks in crowds outdoors.

But it is also cutting the isolation time for those infected with Covid to five days if they test negative.

Under the new restrictions, people will have to wear masks outside when they can't keep at least 2m (6.5ft) away from others.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer says Austrians need to do everything they "can possibly do together to prevent another lockdown".

He says existing rules banning the unvaccinated from many public places would be more strictly enforced.

Austria went into a lockdown for several weeks at the end of last year to fight a surge in cases. Infections then went down, but have been rising again recently.

Newham in east London has the lowest take-up of Covid boosters or third jabs, while Cotswold in Gloucestershire has the highest, new figures suggest.

The data from NHS England cover adult vaccinations delivered up to 2 January, and show just 38.5% of adults got their third dose or boosted in Newham, while 83% took up the offer in Cotswold.

The figures also estimate take-up of the extra dose was:

• 38.6% in the London borough of Tower Hamlets
• 39.2% in the London borough of Barking & Dagenham
• 40.3% in the London borough of Westminster
• 42.8% in Nottingham
• 45.7% in Manchester
• 46.9%in Birmingham
• 49.1% in Liverpool
• 82.8% in Hart, Hampshire
• 82.4% in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire

The daily figures also show that 2,078 people were admitted into hospital across the UK.

Looking at the seven-day averages behind the figures, cases are up 29.3%, deaths up 56.1% and hospital admissions up 64.7%.

Elsewhere in the data, 247,478 booster vaccines were administered, along with 29,030 first jabs and 41,664 second jabs.

A further 179,756 cases have been reported in the UK, according to the government's daily figures.

There were 231 deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test.

On Wednesday 194,747 cases and 334 deaths were reported.

Image source, Reuters

The Omicron coronavirus variant appears to be less severe than the previously-dominant strain, Delta, but should not be categorised as "mild", the head of the World Health Organization has said.

Speaking at a WHO briefing, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that as with previous variants Omicron was hospitalising and killing people.

He said the world was seeing a "tsunami" of cases "so huge and quick that it is overwhelming health systems around the world", with hospitals becoming overcrowded and understaffed.

His colleague Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 technical lead at the WHO, said the number of global cases has increased by 71% in the last week and by 100% in the Americas.

Dr Tedros renewed the WHO's call for richer nations to share vaccines with the developing world.

"I hope global leaders who have shown such resolve in protecting their own populations will extend that resolve to make sure that the whole world is safe and protected," he said.

Where are cases the highest around the world? Find out here.

Image source, Getty Images

Should Covid restrictions return to what they were before Omicron struck? That's what a senior epidemiologist in Wales has been saying.

Cardiff University's Prof John Watkins says thanks to booster protection and evidence Omicron is milder, the threat is no worse than that posed by Delta.

Age is the "major risk factor for poor outcomes", Prof Watkins says – and that factor is being mitigated by high numbers of over-70s taking up the booster.

He also says the Welsh government should perhaps "realign" with England in terms of restrictions. Wales has tougher rules, with restrictions on hospitality and nightclubs closed.

Wales has been seeing record Covid cases recently. But, as in the rest of the UK, numbers in hospital are nothing like as bad as the previous year.

The daily number in hospital on 31 December was 544 – there were nearly four times this number with confirmed Covid at the same point in 2020.

The Welsh government has said its current measures and guidance are proportionate.

Image source, BBC News Serbian

Dozens of people have gathered in front of the Serbian parliament in central Belgrade to show their support for Novak Djokovic.

It came after the tennis star's father urged his fans to respond to Australia's decision to refuse the world number one entry to the country. Border officials said he had failed to provide adequate proof that he was medically exempt from coronavirus vaccination rules.

The player, who arrived in Melbourne for the Australian Open after being granted an exemption by local officials, is being held in a government detention hotel in the city pending a court appeal.

His father, Srdjan told a press conference the hotel conditions were "terrible", adding: "Shame on you to do this to Novak, the best tennis player and athlete and the best man in the world. You will not bring him to his knees, he will fight against it.

"They could have told him not to come, and all would be fine. No, they wanted to humiliate him."

Image source, BBC News Serbian

Earlier, we heard UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticise anti-vaxxers for "putting mumbo jumbo" on social media.

He told broadcasters this was the first time he was speaking out against anti-vax campaigners who were "spouting complete nonsense" about Covid vaccines.

He estimated about 30% to 40% of people being treated for Covid in hospital have not been vaccinated at all, as he called on them to get jabbed.

But he said he wanted to keep a “voluntary approach” to vaccinations in the UK, rather than “coercion” seen in other countries.

Watch the video above for more.

Image source, Getty Images

A bit more detail now on that Office for National Statistics , externalsurvey we mentioned earlier.

As a reminder, the survey suggests that about 1.3 million people in the UK have 'long Covid' - or symptoms lasting more than four weeks after an initial infection.

Of those, 892,000 (70%) first caught the virus at least 12 weeks ago and 506,000 (40%) at least a year ago.

Conducted over four weeks in November and December 2021, the study suggests, of those with long Covid:

• 51% have fatigue
• 37% have loss of smell
• 36% have shortness of breath
• 28% have difficulty concentrating

University of Exeter senior clinical lecturer Dr David Strain says: "The stark warning here is that, based on this, in the previous waves, over 800,000 people have their day-to-day activities significantly affected over three months after catching Covid and nearly a quarter of a million report this has a dramatic impact on their quality of life.

"As we continue to see case numbers of Omicron rise, we must be wary that our reliance purely on hospitalisations and death as a measure of the risk from Covid could grossly underestimate the public-health impact of our current Covid strategy."

You can more here.

Image source, Reuters

The parents of Novak Djokovic say the tennis star is being treated like a criminal as he awaits a ruling on whether he is to be deported from Australia, amid a public backlash over a vaccine exemption.

Speaking to reporters from the player's restaurant in Belgrade, Djokovic's father Srdjan said the row "has nothing to do with sport" and was "political".

The world number one is being held in a government detention hotel in Melbourne pending a court appeal.

His mother, Dijana, said: "They are keeping him as a prisoner, that's not human and it's not fair."

Australian Open organisers said the Serbian player, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted medical exemption by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state.

A total of 125 passengers who arrived in the northern Indian city of Amritsar on a chartered flight from Italy have tested positive for Covid.

They will be placed in isolation, health officials said.

They were among 179 passengers on the flight from Milan which landed in Amritsar on Wednesday afternoon.

TV pictures showed ambulances lined up outside the airport to take away the infected passengers and crowds outside the entrance gates.

The news comes as Italy has announced mandatory Covid vaccination for people aged over 50 in a move to curb record high infections and ease pressure on hospitals there.

Meanwhile, India reported more than 90,000 cases on Thursday - a nearly six-fold rise over the past week that experts say is fuelled by the Omicron variant.

The country recorded 325 deaths in the 24 hours but only one has been linked to Omicron, officials said.

Stephen McDonell
China correspondent, Beijing

Image source, Getty Images

Health officials in the locked-down city of Xi'an have been sacked following public outrage that a woman suffered a miscarriage after being denied access to a hospital due to Covid rules.

Photos and video of the woman outside a hospital in Xi'an have received hundreds of millions of views on social media.

She was sitting on a plastic stool, surrounded by a pool of blood.

Her niece, who posted the images, said her aunt, who was eight months pregnant, had been denied entry to the hospital after her most recent Covid health test had expired just hours earlier.

Strict virus measures have required Covid tests to enter buildings.

Now the general manager of the Gaoxin Hospital has been suspended and those directly responsible for not letting her in have been removed from their positions.

The director of Xian's health department appeared on television today to apologise.

Read more about the lockdown in Xi'an here.

Image source, PA Media

The government has admitted the evidence for using masks in schools to reduce the spread of Covid is "not conclusive", following a review into the evidence for their use.

This uncertainty is acknowledged in a newly published review used by ministers in England to make their decision to expand the use of face coverings for secondary school children to classrooms.

The government's own study of 123 schools in England which used masks last autumn did not provide proof of a statistically significant impact, the review says.

It also lays out that other studies have provided mixed results, but when taken together the evidence suggests they may help.

You can read more here.

The Northern Ireland Assembly is to be recalled early from its Christmas break amid concerns about safety in schools following a rise in Omicron cases.

Members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) will meet on Monday after Sinn Fein issued the recall notice and 30 signatures were received.

MLAs will debate a motion expressing support for keeping schools open, but that raises "serious concern at the lack of planning by the Minister of Education (Michelle McIlveen) to ensure the safe reopening of schools" amid the growth of Omicron.

The motion calls on the minister to "urgently develop a plan that puts the safety of pupils and staff first, through the installation of air monitoring and air filtration devices in all classrooms".

It also calls for McIlveen to address the staffing pressures facing the education system by "utilising and deploying additional teaching capacity to keep schools open and safe".