London: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he hopes England can “ride out” the current wave of Covid-19 without further restrictions. There was a “good chance” he would not impose fresh measures and would recommend continuing the government’s Plan – B strategy in England to ministers on Wednesday.

The measures – which include working from home where possible, mask wearing in most public settings and Covid-19 passports in some venues – are currently due to run out on 28 January.

As daily UK Covid-19 case figures exceeded 200,000 for the first time with the spread of the Omicron variant, Johnson said people who believed the pandemic to be over were “profoundly wrong”.
Boris said the country had a chance to “ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again”. “We can keep our schools and our businesses open and we can find a way to live with this virus,” he said.