Countries around the globe have been struggling to contain the spread of the new Omicron variant.

Here's a snapshot of the day showing how ordinary people are being affected.

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Negative Covid tests are now being accepted as an alternative to vaccine passports in Scotland.

As long as people have proof of a negative PCR or lateral flow test taken within the previous 24 hours on a text or email, they can get into clubs, concerts or large events.

Until now, people were only allowed into large events or nightclubs if they could provide proof of vaccination.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the change to the rules about two weeks ago.

This morning her deputy, John Swinney, told us the rules could be eased because there was now a "high level of vaccination in society".

More details here.

Former health secretary Matt Hancock says he understands why people were angry at him when he was discovered to have broken Covid rules by embracing a colleague in June.

He stood down from his post after the Sun published pictures of him. Now talking to the BBC, Hancock says he is sorry - and that it "was a failure of leadership".

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The UK government should do "whatever it can" to lower the price of Covid pre-departure tests for travellers, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says.

From 04:00 on 7 December, everyone travelling to the UK will need to take a Covid test before their journey - as well as a test after they arrive. Private test providers must be used - so free NHS lateral flow kits are not allowed.

There has been some concern raised about the prices of private tests - with some estimates suggesting it could add several hundred pounds onto the cost of a trip.

Starmer added: "I also want to see the government doing whatever it can to bring the price of these tests down because lots of people... [are] getting really hammered by prices that can't be justified."

For more on the new travel rules, read our explainer here.

Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva

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The World Health Organization says 2020 saw more malaria cases and more deaths, because of disruption to prevention and treatment caused by the pandemic.

In its annual World Malaria Report, the WHO said there were 14 million more cases of malaria in 2020 than a year earlier, and 69,000 more deaths.

Covid has put pressure on health systems worldwide. In countries where malaria is endemic, lockdowns delayed deliveries of mosquito nets, some patients missed out on treatment because they could not travel.

The WHO estimates that two-thirds, or 47,000, of the additional malaria deaths in 2020 were linked to the pandemic’s disruption of malaria prevention and treatment.

However, Monday's report is not all bleak: the WHO had feared malaria deaths in Africa could double last year - but quick action taken by many countries prevented that.

Still, the long-term trend is worrying: since 2017 progress towards eradicating malaria has stalled, with cases and deaths remaining the same after falling significantly during the seven years from 2010.

The pandemic is another setback for eradication, and the WHO is urging governments to step up their anti-malaria work.

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The UK's travel rules are changing. From 04:00 GMT on Tuesday, every traveller coming to the UK will have to have a negative pre-departure Covid test in order to enter the country. It can be either a lateral flow or PCR test and has to be taken in the 48 hours before you travel.

On top of this, all arrivals from a foreign country (apart from the Republic of Ireland) will also need to take a PCR test before the end of their second day in the UK and have to self-isolate - whether or not you have been vaccinated - at least until their negative result comes back.

The PCR day-two test must be booked before your travel, and bought privately from a government-approved list of providers.

There has been some concern raised about the prices of tests - and how much it could add on to the cost of a trip abroad.

A passenger locator form must also be completed in the 48 hours before your arrival.

And remember - a number of other countries now also have their own rules and require Covid tests for travellers arriving from the UK.

For example, your potential holiday in France, external would now involve a lateral flow or PCR test less than 48 hours before departure, the same test two days before your return to the UK, and a PCR test on day two.

More on the UK's travel rules here.

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Italy has beefed up its measures to curb a wave of Covid infections by introducing new rules that target unvaccinated people.

Only those who have been vaccinated or recently recovered from Covid will be allowed to go to the theatre, cinemas, live music venues and major sporting events.

A so-called Covid green pass, which shows proof of vaccination, will now be required to use hotels and local public transport as well.

The measures came into effect today and will remain in place until at least the middle of next month. Infection rates have been rising gradually in Italy since mid-October.

But the country is not alone in placing restrictions on the unvaccinated. Other European countries have adopted similar measures in response to rising infections as winter approaches.

In November, Austria took the drastic step of imposing a lockdown for the unvaccinated.

Since then, Germany's leaders have agreed to bar unvaccinated people from many public venues, and Greece announced monthly fines of €100 (£85; $113) for anyone over 60 who remains unvaccinated.

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In Scotland, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has urged the public to take rapid tests more frequently, saying he takes a lateral flow test every time he leaves home.

"We want people to increase the frequency of the use of lateral flow tests, away from the two times per week to much more frequently when they are socialising and interacting with others," Swinney told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme.

"Personally I am now doing a lateral flow test every day I am going out with the prospect of meeting other members of the public outside my household."

Last week, Health Secretary Sajid Javid suggested people take Covid tests before socialising.

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has received his booster jab this morning, tweeting afterwards:, external "Get vaccinated. For your safety, and the safety of others."

He has been calling for a "renewed national effort" to step up delivery of the booster jabs and has urged those who have not taken up the offer to "think again".

Speaking as he got the jab in London, he says: "I would encourage absolutely everyone who is eligible to come forward and have their booster. Don't be taken in by the misinformation.

"Come forward, have your booster, think of yourself, think of others, think of your communities. Places like this are open. It's quick, it's easy. Please do it."

According to the latest figures on Sunday,, external a combined total of 20,258,417 booster and third doses have so far been delivered in the UK so far. Some people who are considered to have a weakened immune system get a third jab as well as a booster.

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Over to India now, where health officials say the country's tally of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant rose to 21 over the weekend.

India reported its first cases of the new variant on 2 December, when two men – one of them a South African national – tested positive in the southern state of Karnataka.

On Sunday, authorities detected new cases in the states of Maharashtra, Delhi and Rajasthan, and doctors say the new variant is likely to be spreading in the community.

International airports across the country have been screening and testing passengers in line with new travel restrictions announced by the federal government last week.

Several Indian states have also announced different testing and quarantine policies for travellers.

You'll remember that India went through a devastating wave of Covid in April and May due to the Delta variant. New cases have been hovering at about 10,000 a day in recent weeks.

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At the weekend, one of the scientists advising the government criticised the UK's latest travel rule changes, saying they were "a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted".

We've now just heard from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who denies that's the case. On a visit to meet police in Merseyside, Johnson tells reporters: "I think what we're doing is responding to the pandemic.

"We were the first country in the world to take decisive measures to tackle Omicron. We put about 10 countries automatically, immediately, onto the red list and we said that anybody coming from any country in the world would have to quarantine for a couple of days."

He says the UK is now "going further" and "toughening measures".

From 04:00 GMT tomorrow, travellers aged 12 and over will be required to show proof of a negative PCR or lateral flow test taken no earlier than 48 hours before arriving in the UK.

Nigeria has also been added to the UK's red list, meaning arrivals will have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel.

"I don't think we need to change the overall guidance and advice we're giving about Omicron in this country," Johnson adds.

Official NHS guidance says that the main Covid symptoms are still a high temperature, a continuous cough, and a loss or change to smell and taste.

But Tim Spector, who runs the world's largest ongoing study of Covid, says the UK should be getting more people to isolate for at least a few days if they have cold-like symptoms.

His Zoe app, external allows people to log symptoms, tests and vaccinations and has had millions of contributors.

"At the moment, we're estimating that somewhere between one and three and one in four colds are actually due to Covid," the professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London told Times Radio this morning.

"We want to tell people that if you don't feel well that day, don't go out, don't go to work, work from home, because the start of that sniffle, the start of that sore throat, that headache could be a mild dose of Covid that is just breaking through your vaccine."

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We now have Nigeria's reaction to being put on the UK's travel red list - meaning that travellers need to pay to isolate in a quarantine hotel.

Speaking to BBC's Radio 4's Today programme, the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, Sarafa Tunji Isola, said: "The reaction in Nigeria is that of travel apartheid.

"Because Nigeria is actually aligned with the position of the UN secretary general that the travel ban is apartheid, in the sense that we're not dealing with an endemic situation, we are dealing with a pandemic situation, and what is expected is a global approach, not selective."

Mr Isola added that Omicron "is classified as a mild variant - no hospitalisation, no deaths. So the issue is quite different from the Delta variant."

UK government minister Kit Malthouse said the wording "travel apartheid" was "very unfortunate language".

"We understand the difficulties that's created by these travel restrictions, but we're trying to buy a little bit of time so that our scientists at Porton Down can work on the virus and assess how difficult it's going to be for us to cope with as a country," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

More here.

Former health secretary Matt Hancock has been speaking about his breach of social distancing guidelines, which led to his resignation earlier this year.

The West Suffolk MP stood down in June after pictures were published in The Sun showing him in an embrace with a colleague.

"What I really feel is that was a failure of leadership," he says.

"I hope that by being straightforward and apologising and resigning, people can see that I get it and I know I need to do a good job representing the people."

Speaking to the BBC at a mass vaccination event at Newmarket Racecourse, he says he is "sorry for all the people I let down".

"People have been forgiving which I'm grateful for."

Read more here.

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We’ve heard a lot in recent days about a No 10 Christmas party that was held during last year’s Covid restrictions.

It took place on 18 December, with a source telling the BBC "several dozen" people attended.

Covid restrictions at the time banned such events but Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was not at the party, said no coronavirus rules were broken - although the government has refused to explain how party-goers complied.

Asked on BBC Breakfast whether he would support an investigation into the party, the government's crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse said: “I’ve been assured no rules were broken and so that means there’s nothing to show.

“I don’t even know if an event took place, but if it did that no rules were broken.

”It’s for others to decide whether they’ll go further than that, not for me.”

Asked about the issue again later on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Malthouse said: "I asked whether regulations were complied with as part of my briefing for this interview, and I was reassured that all the regulations were complied with."

Last week, families who lost loved ones during the pandemic said they were "sickened" by the news of the party in Downing Street.

Mayeni Jones
BBC News, Lagos

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From today, Nigeria has become the latest country to be added to Britain's travel "red list" - which imposes stringent coronavirus testing and quarantine restrictions on people who wish to enter.

They will have to pay for and self-isolate in a pre-booked government-approved hotel for 10 days.

Ten southern African countries have already been added to the travel "red list", because of fears about the Omicron variant.

The government says the decision is temporary and will be reviewed in three weeks.

The travel industry has described the changes as a "hammer blow".

More on the UK's travel rules here - and head here to read how travel bosses reacted.

Asked if the UK was closer to the start of the pandemic than the end, Prof Paul Hunter tells BBC Breakfast he "wouldn't necessarily agree totally with that".

"I think this virus is around [and] going to be around forever," he says.

"The last time we had a big coronavirus outbreak we think was 130 years ago and that virus is still circulating, we get infected with it fairly regularly, every three to six years, and it basically just causes the common cold.

"That is likely the way that this pandemic is going, so we will be repeatedly infected with Covid, we will be repeatedly infected with new variants but by and large, they'll just be another cause of the common cold."

When asked about Christmas, he says there are actually fewer interactions between people over the festive break than during the working week, so he does not think family gatherings are "under threat".

And on stopping future variants, Hunter says we must make sure every vulnerable person around the world is vaccinated, but this “hasn’t happened to any great degree”.

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South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned the country is now heading “into a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections”.

“We are experiencing a rate of infections that we have not seen since the pandemic started,” he said in a statement,, external adding that the Omicron variant "appears to be dominating new infections in most provinces".

"Over the last week, the number of daily infections has increased five-fold. Nearly a quarter of all Covid-19 tests now come back positive," the president said.

He stressed that the authorities "have been preparing hospitals to admit more patients".

Omicron was first detected in South Africa in November, quickly spreading around the world despite travel bans and other restrictions.

As we've reported, the return of pre-departure Covid tests for travellers to the UK will come into force on Tuesday - as the country tightens its travel restrictions amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

It means that from 04:00 GMT on Tuesday, travellers aged 12 and over will be required to show proof of a negative PCR or lateral flow test taken no earlier than 48 hours before arriving in the UK.

Nigeria has also been added to the UK's red list, meaning arrivals will have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel.

But Prof Paul Hunter says the restrictions will have a “very minor impact” on the spread of Omicron - which is believed to be more infectious than the dominant Delta variant.

"I think everything that we do has some benefit but I think the travel restrictions at this stage will have a very minor impact on how we we are likely to see things develop over the coming weeks," he says.

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This morning we’ve been hearing from Prof Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases from the University of East Anglia, who tells BBC Breakfast the Omicron variant will probably become the UK’s dominant Covid variant within weeks.

Omicron “is spreading rather more quickly than the Delta variant”, he says, pointing to a “rapid increase” is in cases in South Africa.

“How it’s likely to spread in UK is still uncertain, but I think the early signs are it will probably spread quite quickly and probably start outcompeting Delta, and become the dominant variant probably within the next weeks or a month or so at least.”

He says the remaining question we face is how harmful this variant is.

Hunter estimates the UK is likely to already have more than 1,000 cases of Omicron in the UK.

Official figures from the UK’s Health Security Agency say there have been 246 confirmed cases.