The UK reports 438 deaths - the highest figure since 24 February - but case numbers and hospital admissions are falling
This is because of a time lag between hospital admissions and deaths
Earlier Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he was "cautiously optimistic" that some Covid restrictions can be lifted in England next week
The so-called Plan B measures - which include mask-wearing in shops and working from home where possible - are due to expire on the 26 January
Scotland's Covid-19 restrictions are to be eased from Monday with nightclubs reopening, large indoor events resuming and social distance rules scrapped
Meanwhile Boris Johnson has "categorically" denied he was warned a drinks party in the No 10 garden risked breaking lockdown rules
Today’s coronavirus updates were written by Mary O’Connor, Alexandra Fouché, George Bowden, Nathan Williams, Kelly-Leigh Cooper and Becky Morton. The page was edited by Claire Heald, Chris Giles and Jasmine Taylor-Coleman.
Join us again tomorrow.
Image source, Getty ImagesClubbing is back on in Scotland from next week
As we draw our live coverage to a close, let's take a look at some of today's main coronavirus developments in the UK and around the world:
We've seen the highest number of Covid deaths reported in the UK today since the last week in February 2021.
But as the BBC's Head of Statistics Robert Cuffe explained earlier, not all of those will be because of Covid - they will include people who died primarily from something else, but while also having caught Covid.
At the end of last year and the beginning of this, just less than a quarter of deaths involving Covid were not caused by it.
But still the large majority of people whose death involved Covid, were killed by it.
Meanwhile, the seven-day average shows the number of new cases is falling. There are more than 19,000 patients with coronavirus in hospital at the moment.
Image source, ReutersThere is currently no evidence that healthy children or teenagers need a Covid booster jab, the World Health Organization's chief scientist says.
Soumya Swaminathan tells a media briefing the aim of vaccination is to protect the most vulnerable and boosters should be reserved for these groups.
"There’s no evidence right now that healthy children or healthy adolescents need boosters, no evidence at all," she says.
On Monday, booster appointments opened up to 16 and 17-year-olds in England who had their second dose at least three months ago.
Image source, Getty ImagesWe've heard from Nicola Sturgeon today that most remaining Covid restrictions are being lifted in Scotland.
This means that nightclubs will be able to open again, and indoor events will resume.
But to access these - and large outdoor events - people aged over 18 will need to show proof of a negative Covid test or that they are fully vaccinated. Which is where vaccine passports come in.
You'll have to download the NHS Scotland Covid Status App, available on Apple, external and Android, external.
Register, using your passport or driving licence to verify your identity. It then creates a QR code for each vaccination – which you can show before you enter venues.
If it's been more than 120 days since your second jab, you need to have a booster to be classed as fully vaccinated.
There are more details on the scheme here.
While details for similar schemes across the whole of the UK are here.
Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent
“Nobody said this was something against the rules,” Mr Johnson said today about the lockdown drinks party at Downing Street in May 2020, apologising at the same time.
You might call it the “nobody told me” defence. Whether it will work for Boris Johnson is not clear.
Will a mixture of pleading ignorance and showing contrition be enough?
He was of course the person in charge who decided how we all had to limit our behaviour during the pandemic. So this line of defence opens him up to new attacks.
Did he understand the rules? Should he have needed someone to point out a breach? Even if he thought this was a work event, is that enough? Because work events too were prohibited in May 2020.
The inquiry by senior civil servant Sue Gray may well find there’s no incontrovertible evidence he was, explicitly, told the drinks event in his garden was a breach of the rules. But what will voters think?
That will shape what Tory MPs think of their leader. It’s a delicate position for a prime minister with already slipping poll ratings.
Image source, Getty ImagesSome New Zealand residents stuck outside the country have voiced their anger after a planned 20 January release of quarantine hotel spaces was cancelled.
New Zealand has operated strict border controls since the start of the pandemic. The country is currently closed to almost all travellers, with those eligible - including residents - currently having to try and apply for managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) spaces in hotels.
Chris Bunny - the head of managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) - blamed concerns about the Omicron variant for the latest delay.
In a statement, he said he appreciated "that this will be disappointing for many" but the government's strategy remained to minimise Omicron in the country.
"There will be room releases in the future for people wanting to secure rooms, however right now we cannot proceed as planned," he said.
Local media report some 11,000 people tried to get into the country in a delayed MIQ release earlier this month, with most left disappointed.
An announcement last year outlined three phases to re-open international travel into the country in 2022 but initial steps - like resuming quarantine-free travel bubbles - have been delayed since Omicron started to spread rapidly.
Image source, AFPAway from the UK picture, a group of inmates at a prison in the US state of Arkansas are taking legal action, saying they were unknowingly prescribed the horse deworming drug Ivermectin to treat Covid-19.
Small doses of Ivermectin are approved for use on humans, but health officials have warned against its use for Covid.
Anti-vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists have been promoting the drug as an alternative to vaccination.
The doctor who administered the drug said no inmates were forced to take it.
In a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the inmates said that after contracting Covid they were given a "cocktail of drugs", external they were told contained vitamins, antibiotics and steroids.
It said they had been administered Ivermectin without prior informed consent and had experienced problems with their vision, diarrhoea and stomach cramps after taking the medication.
The total number of cases recorded in the UK over the past seven days is down 38.9% on the previous week.
The number of patients admitted to hospital with Covid also appears to be starting to fall, with the weekly figure down 2.9% up to 14 January - the latest figures available.
However, there is a lag between people catching the virus and getting seriously ill so deaths are continuing to rise - and they are up 14.7% on last week.
The UK has recorded 438 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the highest figure since 24 February.
The number of deaths recorded are often higher on Tuesdays because of reporting delays over the weekend.
Another 94,432 cases were also recorded, the fifth day in a row cases have been below 100,000.
Image source, EPAAs we reported yesterday, tennis champion Novak Djokovic is back in Serbia after being deported from Australia where he was not allowed to play in the Open, after losing a visa battle over his Covid status.
Now the Spanish government has said he should get vaccinated against Covid as he is expected to compete in the country.
"What Mr Djokovic has to do is get vaccinated, that would be the most sensible thing to do," government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez told a news conference when asked whether the player would be allowed to play in Spain.
Quote MessageIt is not enough to be great on the court, but you have to be great in life
Isabel Rodríguez, Spanish government spokeswoman
She added that as an elite athlete, the world number one, who is in pursuit of a record 21st major, should set an example.
Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online
Image source, Getty ImagesSo you've caught Covid. What now?
Obviously, you must self-isolate to avoid giving it to other people.
The NHS says the main Covid symptoms are a new, continuous cough; a fever/high temperature or loss of, or change to, smell or taste.
Researchers who have been gathering feedback from people about their experiences with Covid suggest the top five symptoms are similar to a cold:
In terms of your own wellbeing at home, experts recommend:
Some people with Covid will need medical treatment, which might include staying in hospital - read more here for when to seek advice.
Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics
We've been hearing today how hospital admissions are flat or falling across the UK. Cases are plummeting. Things are moving in the right direction.
We’re better protected now: it takes a fortnight for boosters to really work their magic, so the massive numbers of jabs just before Christmas started to do some heavy lifting just as we shook off the new year hangovers and went back to work.
And it looks like the return to work and school – which might be expected to feed into the figures by now – is not leading to a spike in cases.
One big but. We don’t know how much last week’s rules in who gets tested are affecting the case numbers.
So we don’t yet know whether we’re heading towards low levels of Covid or are still stuck with high levels of infections.
We’ll have a better sense on Wednesday, when we get weekly figures on infections for last week that are less influenced by testing policy.
Last week, they showed a slowdown in the growth of infections overall and a fall in London for the first week of the New Year. Here’s hoping for flat figures, or even more falls, tomorrow.
Deaths are still rising. It’s worth remembering that deaths today started as infections nearly a month ago. They might keep rising for a little while since, a month ago, infections were rising quickly.
I believe PM is telling the truth - Rishi Sunak
As we reported earlier, Rishi Sunak says he accepts Boris Johnson's explanation regarding a Downing Street drinks party during lockdown in May 2020.
You can read our full story on it here, and the Prime Minister's latest comments on his role in the matter here.
"The prime minister set out his understanding of this matter last week in Parliament. I refer you to his words," Sunak says.
When pressed on whether Johnson has his unequivocal support, he ended the interview.
Image source, ReutersAway from Scotland changes and south of the border, there's another story involving Dominic Cummings today. It's been ruled that a contract given to a PR company - whose founders were friends with the PM's former top adviser - is lawful.
This overturns an earlier ruling that the £550,000 contract to Public First was unlawful as it gave rise to "apparent bias".
The company got the contract to carry out focus groups to test the effectiveness of slogans such as "Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives", in June 2020.
In a tweet, Cummings said the Court of Appeal ruling was "total vindication for my decisions on moving super speedy on procurement to save lives".
Campaign group the Good Law Project, which challenged the legality of the contract, says it plans to appeal.
Sturgeon says certain Covid measures in place before the Omicron wave will stay.
Businesses, service providers and places of worship still have to take "reasonable measures" to minimise the spread of coronavirus on their premises.
They include the requirement to wear a face covering in public indoor settings and on public transport.
Hospitality firms must continue to record customers' contact details for Test and Protect.
Nicola Sturgeon confirms the Scottish government will not at this stage extend the Covid certification scheme to other premises.
However, she says this could change if cases were to rise sharply.
Currently people must show proof of full vaccination or a recent negative test to enter nightclubs, large indoor venues and outdoor events.
There will be one minor change to the certification regulations - venues that have dancefloors but have put tables on it will have to use the scheme from Monday when late night venues can open.
Sturgeon stresses there are still high levels of the virus circulating in the community, even if the Covid situation overall is on the up.
To minimise risk of getting infected, people should be careful in their social interactions, she says - despite the lifting of a three-household limit on indoor gatherings.
She urges the public to keep gatherings as small as possible until the end of month to reduce the risk of virus transmission.
And she says people should keep taking lateral flow tests - and record the results online - before meeting others.
The government will continue to advise people to work from home wherever possible, Sturgeon adds.
But she says ministers will start to engage with businesses now about a move to a hybrid approach from the start of February.
Nicola Sturgeon says the improving Covid situation means the measures introduced to tackle Omicron can lift from Monday 24 January.
These are:
She says guidance against non-professional indoor contact sports and for people to limit indoor gatherings to three households will also be lifted.
But the first minister says people should "remain cautious" on social interactions.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is giving an update to MSPs on Covid.
She says the pandemic is now on a "much more positive course".
Although "significant pressures and uncertainties remain", she says the latest data gives her confidence that "we have turned a corner on the Omicron wave".
Sturgeon adds that cases and Covid hospital admissions are falling, although they remain high.