it s been so unnerving for travel companies, hasn t it? everyone felt things were getting back to normal and all of a sudden, a new variant, people are now reluctant to book holidays in case they have to cancel them at the last minute and south africa, a popular destination is now on the red list and people had to hotel quarantine when they arrived backin hotel quarantine when they arrived back in the uk, and it is things like having a pcr test on the nhs which travel bosses say would encourage people to book holidays if there was less cost for them. when you walk through gatwick airport, it is so much quieter than it was before the pandemic. only one terminal is open, the north terminal, the south terminal is closed, lots of shops are closed because there is no point, there is not enough passengers to support these businesses. these businesses. thank you very much. before
it s clear uk cases linked to the omicron variant are on the rise. the big unanswered questions remain what impact the variant will have on illness, vaccines and transmission. dominic hughes, bbc news. jenny harries is the chief executive of the uk health security agency. she says we re in a period of great uncertainty. almost all the public health professionals are very concerned about the variant, it has far more mutations than anything we have seen before and some of the characteristics of these mutations give us concern that it might start to evade either natural immunity where we have been infected before or the great efforts we have made with vaccination. but all of this is a period of great uncertainty and that is the key point. we are taking precautionary measures in order that we buy ourselves some time, so we can carry through the scientific tests we normally do to understand the variant better. the airline, easyjet,
targeted by the antibody response and by our response to vaccines, so that s very, very important because it looks like it has the potential to massively or at least partially lead to a reduction in vaccine effectiveness. to some extent that can be overridden by very high antibody levels, the sort of antibody levels, the sort of antibody levels, the sort of antibody levels you see with boosting, which i think is the reason booster shots have been brought forward to allow more people to have a more robust response to overrun the extent to which we don t know yet. overrun the extent to which we don t know et. :, . ., ., , ,:, know yet. how much data is there so far to io know yet. how much data is there so far to go on know yet. how much data is there so far to go on in know yet. how much data is there so far to go on in terms know yet. how much data is there so far to go on in terms of know yet. how much data is there so far to go on in terms of the - know yet. how much data is
is an unknown variant with potentially high risks and people will want to apply by the new regulations but the police have been clear over night that they are going to start to enforce them again, so people should not be surprised if they are travelling on public transport if a police officer approaches them and ask them to put on a mask. if they own a shop and a police officer happens to be there all the shop owner calls the police, they might be encouraged to wear a face covering. by the way, i should say one other thing. in the government guidance they are encouraging people to wake face coverings, not the visors, not the transparent visors. who; coverings, not the visors, not the transparent visors. transparent visors. why is that? they believe transparent visors. why is that? they believe the transparent visors. why is that? they believe the visors - transparent visors. why is that? they believe the visors are - transparent visors. why is that? they believe the visors are not
you feel about the reintroduction of mandatory mask wearing in england? what other questions do you have about this new variant and what it means for you? get in touch with me on twitter @annitabbc and use the #bbcyourquestions barbados has removed the queen as head of state after almost 400 years and transitioned to a republic swearing in its first ever barbadian president. ghislaine maxwell s criminal trial is under way in new york with the disgraced heiress accused of providing young girls to be by the convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein good morning and welcome to bbc news. new rules aimed at limiting the spread of the omicron variant of coronavirus have come into force