Boris Johnson to hold Downing Street press conference today on Omicron variant

Boris Johnson is holding a press conference at Downing Street this afternoon following the return of Covid measures to tackle the Omicron variant.
Boris Johnson is holding a press conference at Downing Street this afternoon following the return of Covid measures to tackle the Omicron variant.Boris Johnson is holding a press conference at Downing Street this afternoon following the return of Covid measures to tackle the Omicron variant.
Boris Johnson is holding a press conference at Downing Street this afternoon following the return of Covid measures to tackle the Omicron variant.

He will speak from Downing Street at 5pm following announcements at the weekend, which included how scientists found 11 cases of the Omicron strain in the UK.

It's expected that Mr Johnson will urge people to get their booster vaccines after the rollout was extended to all over-18s and the gap between second and third doses halved to three months.

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It's been reported that he will set a new target of 500,000 boosters a day and inform the UK of when age groups can come forward for theirs.

It's also likely that he will speak about the reintroduction of masks for public places and about new travel rules which force all arrivals to take a Day 2 PCR test and isolate until it comes back negative.

Mr Johnson defended bringing the Covid rules back today, saying they are ‘proportionate and responsible’ and will buy the nation time over Omicron

He added: "Vaccines and boosters remain our best line of defence, so it is more important than ever that people come forward when eligible to get boosted."

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Health minister Gillian Keegan faced questions this morning amid fears of last year’s ‘cancelled’ Christmas repeating itself.

She said the Government is "hoping we can keep Christmas on track," adding the situation is very different following the vaccine rollout.

Ms Keegan also said the chances of having to isolate over Christmas were ‘pretty low’.