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 boss of iceland has said
urges eu health ministers to step up testing and sequencing as the omicron variant is detected across the continent. with all the details on those new rules in the uk, here s our health correspondent, dominic hughes. from this morning, face coverings are now compulsory in shops and on public transport in england. face coverings are already needed for most public places and transport in wales. masks are also required in pubs and restaurants in scotland and northern ireland. but there is some concern over how shoppers in england will cope with the return of face coverings. the vast majority of the public, when it was required to wear face coverings, were very good about it, and still are in scotland and wales, where the regulations were never removed. but there is definitely a minority of people who seem to think that the rules shouldn t apply to them and they are causing problems at stores. we ve seen the levels of violence that shop workers faced more than doubled during the pandemic.
has made a loss of more than a billion pounds for the second year in a row. its results were slightly better than in the previous twelve months, and the firm said it had good levels of bookings but it was too early to know what impact the omicron variant would have on the business. the chief executive of easyjet, johan lundgren, said that despite the introduction of new travel restrictions in the uk, he was confident the government would remove them as soon as was possible. clearly, they want to have the ability as soon as it is safe to do so to remove all the restrictions so we take a lot of comfort in that, that is the right way of looking at that so we are not writing off the winter but having said that, we thought always that this winter was going to be a year of two halves, when the winter would be something that had a lot of uncertainty and that assumption seems to be the right one. our reporter charlotte gallagher is at gatwick airport and joins me now.
what the ideal rules are, it shows the kind of confusion that are spreading around the world with the concerns about omicron and right around the world, from australia to switzerland, the governments are reacting and not in a good way, for travellers or the travel industry. just clarify for us, it is worth repeating because lots of people have asked about this, when do you have asked about this, when do you have to book that pcr test, when you re to return? to have to book that pcr test, when you re to return? you re to return? to give you an example. you re to return? to give you an example. my you re to return? to give you an example, my flight you re to return? to give you an example, my flight is you re to return? to give you an example, my flight is at - you re to return? to give you an example, my flight is at seven l example, my flight is at seven o clock on friday, friday afternoon i shall settle down with a cup of coffee, i shall book my test then, there is no benefit
new rules aimed at limiting the spread of the omicron variant of coronavirus have come into force today as more cases have been recorded in the uk. face coverings must now be worn in shops and on public transport in england. later today the uk prime minister is due to speak at a downing street news conference where he ll set out plans to accelerate the boosterjabs programme with all adults in the uk to be offered a third vaccine. the plans come as the chief executive of moderna says he forsees a drop in the effectiveness of current jabs. he told the financial times it will take months to develop a new shot that works but that they re already working on it. german leaders will also meet later to discuss the possible introduction of new measures to combat an aggressive fourth wave of infections. also from today, if you re arriving into the uk, you ll need to complete a pcr test and self isolate until you receive the result. it comes as the european commission