remembering archbishop desmond tutu south africa has begun a week of events to commemorate the anti apartheid leader, who died on sunday. hello and welcome. the uk health secretary saijd javid has ruled out introducing any new covid restrictions in england before the new year. ministers had been under pressure to respond to rising infection levels after the develoved administrations in scotland, wales and northern ireland all implemented measures to stem the spread of the omicron variant. scotland has seen its highest ever number of cases this christmas period, 11,030 were recorded on boxing day, and today, just over ten
south africa has begun a week of events to commemorate the anti apartheid leader, who died on sunday. we meet gabriela camara star mexican chef and talk to her about the intersection of cooking and cultural identity. hello, welcome to bbc news. the uk health secretary saijd javid has ruled out introducing any new covid restrictions in england before the new year. ministers had been under pressure to respond to rising infection levels after the develoved administrations in scotland, wales and northern ireland all implemented measures to stem the spread of the omicron variant. scotland has seen its highest ever number of cases
test every day for seven days. if one of the test is positive self isolation will then be required. anyone identified as a close contact over 18 and four months and not fully vaccinated will still be asked to self isolate for ten days and to take a pcr test. these changes are significant and they are not completely without risk but at this stage of the pandemic they do strike an appropriate balance between the continued importance of self isolation and breaking change of transmission and reducing the disruption self isolation causes in the economy and other critical services, and we are also proposing an important change to the advice on testing and let me be clear again, this has been very carefully considered. scotland and the uk is one of the most extensive pcr testing systems anywhere in the world but with infection levels as high as they are we must fully
need to adapt our ways of managing the virus and we will do so but in the virus and we will do so but in the meantime we must continue to do what we know makes a difference now and to get fully vaccinated as soon as you can, do it this week, and the more who are boosted, the less severe the impact of omicron, for each of us as individuals if we get the virus and society as a whole. limit your contacts and right now with infection levels at one in 20 at least, every interaction we have comes with a significant risk of catching the virus so we should prioritise the contacts that matter most and third, if you are meeting other people, test before you go and finally, take all the other precautions which make a difference, work from home, whenever possible, as the new working day gets under way, to employers who enable this, where a face covering on public transport and when moving about in hospitality, make sure it fully covers your mouth and nose, and if
this relaxation of restrictions. the single biggest thing in terms of preventing on the transmission, when you are infected, is to isolate when you are infected, is to isolate when you had symptoms, when you test positive, and that is remaining in place. it positive, and that is remaining in lace. , ., positive, and that is remaining in lace. , . , , place. it is remaining in place but both said place. it is remaining in place but both sajid javid place. it is remaining in place but both sajid javid and place. it is remaining in place but both sajid javid and the place. it is remaining in place but both sajid javid and the prime i both sajid javid and the prime minister earlier pointed to plans to end south isolation by the end of march south isolation. there will be people who think everything you had set is clearly good news but we have figures today showing over 300 deaths were recorded and infection levels are quite high, they will be saying how can you square these things