122 covid related deaths were recorded every day. 0n vaccinations, nearly 21 million people have now had a boosterjab. how should britain deal with the challenge of the 0micron variant? with different restrictions in different parts of the united kingdom, what does the public think is the right response? our home editor mark easton has been assessing the national mood. christmas is coming, but so too we are told is 0micron, the latest covid variant. so after last year s festivities were thrown into disarray, how do people feel about christmas this year, with case numbers rising again? we have assembled a cross section of people with the help of pollsters. i thought we would start by getting a sense of how excited or worried you are about christmas. how you feeling? are about christmas. how you feelin: ? ~ are about christmas. how you feelina? ~ . ., , feeling? we cancelled our christmas dinner last year. feeling? we cancelled our christmas dinner last year. there
tonight at six the government defends itself after claims its evacuation of people from afghanistan was chaotic and dysfunctional. a foreign office whistleblower says thousands of people s requests for help went unanswered because of a lack of staff and leadership in london, but the prime minister calls the evacuation an outstanding military achievement. of course, sometimes, decisions took hours longer than we wanted to, but you have to be careful about how you do it. it was still an astonishing thing to get 15,000 people airlifted out of kabul in pretty harrowing circumstances. also on the programme tonight: britain now has more confirmed cases of the covid 0micron variant than anywhere else in europe with another hundred being recorded in the past 2a hours.
response, although he says others have been evacuated. those who have found this whole process the most difficult are those who were part of civil society, difficult are those who were part of civilsociety, but difficult are those who were part of civil society, but not employed by the british or other foreign governments, journalists and activists. many have fled to pakistan, where they hope to find western countries they can travel on to, but a lot of them are really struggling at the moment. a scheme announced by the british government to take 20,000 vulnerable afghans has yet to begin. as for reports about killings by the taliban, well there have been some of the former members of security forces, including one linked to britain, but no other verification of other incidents. no other verification of other incidents britain has now registered more cases of the 0micron variant of coronavirus than anywhere else in europe. another 101 confirmed cases have been recorded in the past 2a
in england and scotland. this morning the prime minister told the cabinet that early evidence pointed to the 0micron variant being more transmissible than its predecessors. but there s still no evidence that it will lead to more hospitalisations and deaths. here s our health correspondentjim reed. dozens here at sandown racecourse have been queueing in the rain for their booster jabs. ministers have said they want to put the vaccine programme on steroids to better protect people from omicron this winter. there is mounting evidence the new variant is spreading in the uk. in scotland, there have now been 99 confirmed cases. still small numbers overall but a tenfold increase in just a week. given the nature of transmission, i would expect to see a continued and potentially rapid rise in cases in the days ahead and for 0micron to account for a rising share of overall cases. nicola sturgeon urged people to follow the rules to prevent tougher