The government plans to offer booster vaccines to everyone over the age of 18 by the end of January, Boris Johnson has said. Speaking at a Downing Street news briefing on Tuesday, the PM said the rollout of booster programme will go in age order, and that there will be more than 1,500 community pharmacy
UK
Today fresh measures designed to deal with the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron have come into force in England. They were announced by Prime Minster Boris Johnson at the weekend amid concern the new variant could be less responsive to vaccines and more infectious. Mask wearing in England is now compulsory in shops,
Six cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been found in Scotland, authorities have confirmed. They are in addition to the three already detected in England. Four cases are in the Lanarkshire area and two have been identified in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area. Scotland’s health secretary Humza Yousaf said: “This will be a
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of 12-year-old Ava White, who suffered “catastrophic injuries” in an assault in Liverpool city centre on Thursday, police have said. The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has also been charged with possession of a bladed article. He is due in court on Monday.
Boris Johnson has said that people who come into close contact with anyone who tests positive for coronavirus with the new Omicron variant will have to self-isolate, regardless of their jab status, as he delivered a press conference in Downing Street. The prime minister warned the Omicron variant could reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, as
Two cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant has been detected in the UK, the health secretary has said. Sajid Javid also said there would be targeted testing in the areas where the cases were found – in Chelmsford and in Nottingham. He said the two individuals are now self-isolating. Making the announcement, Mr Javid added:
Police investigating the murder of a 12-year-old girl in Liverpool city centre are going to review hundreds of hours of CCTV in an attempt to find out what happened. Ava White suffered “catastrophic injuries” when she was assaulted after a Christmas lights switch-on event on Thursday evening. Merseyside Police said she had been involved in
No cases of the new COVID variant have been detected in the UK, but it is highly likely it has now spread beyond southern Africa, the health secretary has said. Sajid Javid warned the new strain could be more transmissible than the Delta variant and there is a “possibility it might have a different impact
Britain is bringing in travel restrictions for six African countries due to a new COVID variant that UK experts have called the “worst one we’ve seen so far”. Health Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted: “UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency) is investigating a new variant. More data is needed but we’re taking precautions now. “Six African countries
The defence secretary has saved 500 troops from a planned cut in army numbers at a time of growing threats, though the force will still shrink by 9,000 posts to 73,000 to save money, Sky News understands. Ben Wallace is set to focus on capability rather than mass on Thursday as he sets out an
An alleged victim of a Hull grooming gang has told how she was bitten, beaten and burned during a violent rape – and that police and her school had concerns she was being abused but failed to stop it. Warning: This article includes graphic content The teenage girl’s mother was so worried after her daughter
Two police officers who shared photos on WhatsApp of the bodies of two murdered sisters have been found guilty of gross misconduct. PC Jamie Lewis and PC Deniz Jaffer had admitted sharing images of the bodies of Bibaa Henry, 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27. Lewis was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police at the pair’s misconduct
Police have been urged to “declare war” on a child grooming gang after several women told Sky News they were abused by a group of men operating in Hull. A police probe into the alleged crimes has gone dormant, but the UK’s former top child abuse investigator has called for detectives to “double down” on
The government is advising people to take a COVID-19 test before they spend time in “crowded and enclosed spaces” this winter. The Cabinet Office had previously advised people to take two lateral flow tests a week, especially if they have school-age children or are meeting clinically vulnerable people. Now the public is being told to take rapid
The UK could be hit by a wetter-than-normal winter with households urged to be prepared for the risk of flooding. A Met Office outlook predicts plenty of rain over the next three months, with the wetter conditions most likely in January and February next year. The Environment Agency is urging people to check their flood
Bulb, Britain’s seventh-biggest energy supplier, is facing collapse within days amid eleventh-hour talks between the government and the company’s biggest secured creditor. Sky News has learnt that the company, which launched in 2015 and has amassed 1.7 million customers, is expected to appoint insolvency practitioners imminently. The precise timing remained unclear on Monday because of
The Queen has attended a rare royal double christening at a private ceremony at Windsor. The 95-year-old monarch saw two of her great-grandsons being baptised – Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s first baby, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, and Zara and Mike Tindall’s third child, Lucas Philip Tindall. Eugenie, one of Prince Andrew’s two daughters, was
The taxi driver who survived the Liverpool terror attack has said it is a “miracle that I’m alive” in his first statement since the explosion on Remembrance Sunday. David Perry and his wife Rachel have thanked the public for their “amazing generosity” in the wake of the attack outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital one week ago.
The UK has reported 40,941 new COVID cases and a further 150 deaths in the latest 24-hour period. The number of cases is a small drop on Friday’s figures, when 44,242 were recorded. The total number of COVID deaths in the UK since the start of the pandemic now stands at 143,866. Please use Chrome
Spiking coronavirus infections across Europe show the “critical” need for people in the UK get vaccinated, a government scientific adviser has told Sky News. Soaring cases on the continent underlined “how quickly things can go wrong”, said Professor John Edmunds, who pointed out there were still “many millions” across Britain, who were still not fully