this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a legal document, which prince andrew s lawyer believes could stop a civil case against him in the us, has been made made public. the duke of york has consistenly denied sexually assaulting virginia giuffre when she was 17 years old. lawyers on both sides of the atlantic will be scrutinising the document to see what impact if any it has on the case. the uk prime minister borisjohnson rules out further covid measures in england for now, despite the ongoing rise in omicron infections. the pressure on our nhs, on our hospitals is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks and maybe more, because there s no question omicron continues to surge through the country.
an israeli hospital has begun giving a fourth shot of the coronavirus vaccine in a clinical trial to find out if it is safe and effective in containing the spread of covid. the trial in tel aviv includes about 150 health care workers who received their third shot no later than august this year. israel is considering approving a fourth dose, or second booster, for vulnerable people as omicron infections surge despite a comprehensive vaccination programme. let s try and assess the latest covid figures. we were reflecting on the situation in scotland, and i think we can bring you the latest on the figures from england. apologies, because i am looking
want to kick us off with this new your paper review for tuesday morning? critical incidents, says the guardian, at several and adjust trusts as covid shortage hits. that s right, and it looks like a mixed bag in terms of the news coming out of the nhs. on the one hand there are little bits of good news, which is that the increase in hospitalisations rates we are seeing may be starting, the numbers are still going up, but the rate of increase may be slowing slightly. the other bit of good news is that hospital chiefs are saying that there are not lots of older people coming to hospital with erie severe omicron infections and that outbreaks in care homes are not translating into a hospital admissions, so that s the good news. the bad news, though, is that the nhs is still under very, very severe strain. that s partly because of how it went into this winter, with very,
appear to produce enough anti-bodies to stop omicron infections, however. the ceo of moderna says he expects to begin clinical trials in the coming weeks of a vaccine specifically targeting omicron and have data to share with regulators as early as march. separately he says in late 2023 a vaccine could become available that would combine in a single shot a covid booster protection against seasonal flu and protection against another common respiratory virus called rsv. our goal needs to have a single booster. in order, simplifying it so people are getting fewer shots and not growing weary of having getting all the new vaccinations. ahead of the launch, the federal website for ordering free covid test kits is already online.
terrific, but they were developed for the original variant, we should start thinking about kind of broader vaccines, broader protection. and then the key here, i think, is communicating with people, we re not going to be in a forever emergency, we ll be able to manage future surges, let s relax when we can and then let s manage the surge when it hits us again. i think it is interesting that people aren t talking more about the fact that we re past the worst of it in places that were hit hard by omicron. it would actually help. it might help. what are the chances that after omicron, given how many people are vaccinated in the u.s. and how many people had omicron infections that we could hit a stage, you know, i hesitate to use this language, the best ever for all of us in terms of coronavirus since it started. yeah, i m pretty optimistic that that s what we re going to see. obviously, again, you have to be a bit humble about what happens in the future, but, look, we have got 60 some