Santa hats and Christmas jumpers added festive colour to the usual PPE for the “jingle jabs” NHS campaign in east London on Christmas Day.

At one of at least eight vaccination centres open in England, volunteers decorated Redbridge town hall with Christmas-themed pictures and festive messages as they dealt with a fast-moving queue for booster jabs.

“We’ve tried to jazz it up a little bit, tried to decorate some of the bays. There’s only a limited amount we can do from a clinical point of view, but we’ve tried. Those with their Christmas hats have got them on while trying to observe full PPE,” said Imran Khan, a senior clinical pharmacist at the centre.

Khan said the campaign to get people vaccinated at centres open from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day was useful in a diverse area such as Ilford and especially for workers who did not have the luxury of working from home.

Sadique Shikder, 46, said his job as a bartender meant he was usually too busy to get to a vaccination centre. Similarly, 54-year-old Azmat Hussain, said he would normally be travelling as a salesperson in the financial sector. “We usually do a dinner today and it’s my mum’s birthday as well but because of Covid we’ve had to scale back so I’ll go back and watch TV,” said Hussain.

Omani authorities will require foreign travellers aged 18 or older to have received at least two Covid-19 vaccine doses to enter the sultanate, the state news agency reported on Sunday.

The sultanate also cancelled a previous decision that suspended entry from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and Mozambique.

France Recorded more than 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time since the pandemic struck, and Covid-19 hospitalisations have doubled over the past month as the fast-spreading Omicron variant complicates the government’s efforts to stave off a new lockdown.

More than one person in 100 in the Paris region has tested positive in the past week, according to the regional health service. Most new infections are linked to the Omicron variant, which government experts predict will be dominant in France in the coming days.

Meanwhile a surge in Delta variant infections in recent months is pushing up hospital admissions. More than 1,000 people in France with the virus died over the past week, bringing the overall death toll to more than 122,000.

The government is holding emergency meetings on Monday to discuss next steps. Some scientists and teachers have urged delaying the post-holiday return to school, or re-imposing a curfew. But the education minister says schools should open as usual on 3 January, and other government officials are working to avoid measures that would hammer the economic recovery.

Instead the government is hoping that stepped-up vaccinations will be enough. The government is pushing a draft law that would require people to be vaccinated to enter all restaurants and many public venues, instead of the current health pass system which allows people to produce a negative test or proof of recovery if they’re not vaccinated.

More details from Reuters on the identification of the first case of the Omicron variant on the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian health ministry said the carrier is a Gaza resident who was infected within the coastal territory. A ministry official, Majdi Dhair, said this meant the variant, first identified in southern Africa and Hong Kong last month, existed in Gaza and was now spreading among the population. The discovery poses a new challenge to the enclave’s under-developed health system.

“We are ahead of difficult days. It is expected that the Omicron variant will spread fast,” he told reporters.

Gaza, with a population of 2.2 million people, has registered 189,837 COVID-19 infections and 1,691 deaths. Dhair urged Gazans to get vaccinated, putting the percentage of those who had already received shots at around 40 percent.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, three cases of Omicron variant had been detected among Palestinians on Dec. 16 and the number had since risen to 23 among the 3.1 million population, Palestinian health authorities said.

Is Omicron the start of another bleak new year or the beginning of the end for the pandemic in the UK? The Observer’s science editor Robin McKie reports

How close does this year’s outbreak parallel that of last winter?

At first glance, the two years look similar, with case numbers rocketing in only a few weeks in the UK. However, hospitalisations and deaths from Covid-19 remain very low so far this year, with latest research suggesting that the new variant appears to trigger fewer cases of severe illness than its viral predecessors.

Scientists have generally treated these results studies as good news but have also counselled caution. Daily Covid-19 case numbers are still rising – they reached a record 122,000 on Friday – and it was estimated that 1.7m people had Covid-19 in the UK last week.

Are there noticeable differences in the ages of those affected by Omicron?

Crucially, most of the new cases have occurred in young adults, which has led some researchers to warn that if Omicron starts to affect older – more vulnerable – people in greater numbers, hospitalisations could still jump. On the other hand, a huge number of people – especially the elderly – have now been give vaccines and boosters and will have gained considerable protection against Omicron. It remains to be seen how these different factors affect figures. At present, data is still being gathered and it is too early to be sure. At the same time, policy decisions to protect public health still have to be taken.

The problem is highlighted by infectious disease epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University. “There is inevitably a lag between infection and hospitalisation,” he told the journal Nature last week. “But in the meantime, policy decisions have to be made, and that is not straightforward.”

Is the virus likely to lose its power to cause severe illness?

Many scientists believe evidence is now suggesting that this idea may be correct. Recent studies in Scotland, England and South Africa all point in this direction. “My gut feeling is that this variant is the first step in a process by which the virus adapts to the human population to produce more benign symptoms,” says Dr Julian Tang, Professor of Respiratory Sciences at Leicester University. “In a sense, it is to the virus’s advantage if it affects people in a way that that they don’t get too sick – because then they can walk around and mingle in society and spread the virus even more.”

So will Covid-19 end up behaving like flu?

Some health officials have predicted that Covid-19 could end up behaving like influenza, which requires a new vaccine to deal with new strains that appear every year. However, Professor Martin Hibberd, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, argues that coronaviruses – like those that already cause common colds – do not behave this way: “They do not appear as new strains every year. The reason we get colds in winter is because our immunity to coronaviruses does not last very long. And this virus seems to be more similar to those that cause common colds. In other words, we may still need to think about giving vaccines to protect against Covid-19 every year because immunity will always slip.”

That does not mean we face “doom and gloom” for the next five years, adds Tang. “I think the virus will evolve itself out of the pandemic strain very soon and become milder, more transmissible to the point where you may only need to think about vaccinating the more vulnerable members of the population.”

In the UK, cabinet ministers vying to succeed Boris Johnson have been warned by Tory colleagues that they will damage their chances unless they stridently oppose further Covid measures in England, as MPs called for New Year’s Eve restrictions to be ruled out.

With ministers expected to meet as soon as Monday to discuss whether additional measures are needed to protect hospital capacity, several Conservatives said that they would be watching those emerging as leading contenders to replace Johnson should he step aside before the next election.

The news comes after it emerged government scientific advisers had modelled the impact of implementing so-called “step 2” restrictions from Tuesday. Such measures would see an end to indoor gatherings, limited outdoor gatherings, and bars and restaurants only able to serve outdoors. The modelling suggested that restrictions could reduce deaths by 18% if kept in place until mid-January or 39% if retained until the end of March.

Delaying the measures until New Year’s Day would reduce their impact, though the scientists said their models did not have “sufficient precision” to detect differences in a small delay. “When an epidemic is rapidly growing, the earlier interventions take place, the larger their effect,” they said.

The UK recorded 122,186 new Covid Cases on Friday, the highest yet, while the Office for National Statistics estimated that 1.7 million Britons had the virus in the week ending 19 December, also a record.

The Liberal Democrats have called for a clear plan to keep schools in England open in January.

The Sunday Times has reported that the prime minister told Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, that he is “absolutely determined” that pupils will return to school after the Christmas holidays and that both believe education is the “No 1 priority” with school closures “not being considered”.

However, the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson said it was not clear what mitigation measures had been put in place to keep Covid cases down in classrooms.

“Our children have been failed again and again throughout this pandemic by Boris Johnson’s government,” she said. “Of course schools should stay open but he needs to explain how and with what help for teachers and parents.

“He needs to explain how and with what help for teachers and parents. From air purifiers to rolling out the vaccine to teenagers, this government has dragged its feet. Ministers must set out a clear plan to reassure families that schools will be kept open, instead of making yet more empty promises.”

Schools were closed in England last January, some after reopening for just one day following the Christmas holidays. Most children had already been off school from March until September.

Restrictions on hospitality in Scotland have been reimposed as the government looks to stem the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

With the increased transmissibility of the new strain, the Scottish government has imposed limits on the number of people who can attend events.

Only 100 are allowed to attend a standing indoor event and 200 at a seated event. Outdoor events have been limited to 500, meaning large-scale Hogmanay celebrations have been scrapped.

Despite the restrictions, football games in the Scottish Premiership will go ahead on Boxing Day, with the winter break brought forward to limit the impact of restrictions on teams. Indoor non-professional contact sports have also been stopped.

The restrictions will be reviewed in three weeks, and will be paired with further changes coming into effect from Monday at 5am, including the closure of nightclubs.

Indoor hospitality and leisure settings will also have to return to one-metre social distancing and table service where appropriate under the new measures.

Some detail on the new restrictions in Wales, via PA Media. Groups of no more than six people will be allowed to meet in pubs, cinemas and restaurants in Wales from Boxing Day as new restrictions come into force.

Under a series of new measures announced by first minister Mark Drakeford last week, the two-metre social distancing rules are returning in public places and workplaces.

Licensed premises will have to offer table service only, face masks will have to be worn and contact tracing details collected.

Outdoor events will be limited to 50 people, with 30 indoors – but numbers able to attend events such as weddings, civil partnerships, funerals and wakes will be determined by the size of the venue.

The rules, which come into force from 6am, are a revised version of alert level two. The regulations bring back protections in hospitality businesses, including licensed premises, and in cinemas and theatres. Nightclubs will also close.

The Night Time Industries Association described the measures as a “devastating blow” to the industry and urged the UK Government to reintroduce the furlough scheme.

Drakeford said £120m would be available for nightclubs, retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism businesses affected by the measures.

“We are facing a very serious situation in Wales. A wave of infections caused by the new, fast-moving and very infectious Omicron variant is headed our way,” he said.

“We will do everything we can to protect people’s health and livelihoods in Wales – this means taking early action to try and control its spread.”

There will be no restrictions on household mixing, but guidance will be issued about limiting the number of visitors, taking a lateral flow test before the visit, and meeting outdoors, if possible.

There will be a separate offence for large gatherings – more than 30 people indoors or 50 people outdoors – in private homes and gardens.

Drakeford did not rule out introducing further restrictions in the new year, but said he hoped these measures would flatten the infection rate.

More on the situation in China, courtesy of Reuters, after the country reported its highest daily rise in local Covid-19 cases in 21 months as infections more than doubled in the northwestern city of Xian, China’s latest Covid hot spot.

The city of 13 million, which entered its fourth day of lockdown, detected 155 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms for Saturday, up from 75 a day earlier, official data showed on Sunday.

That drove the national daily count to 158, the highest since China managed to contain a nationwide outbreak in early 2020. Xian, with 485 local symptomatic cases reported for the 9-25 December period, has imposed heavy-handed measures to rein in the outbreak, in line with Beijing’s policy that any flare-up should be contained as soon as possible.

Residents may not leave town without approval from employers or local authorities and multiple rounds of mass testing were conducted to identify cases.

The city has announced no infections caused by the Omicron variant, although Chinese authorities have reported a handful of Omicron infections among international travellers and in southern China.

Including imported cases, mainland China confirmed 206 new cases on 25 December , up from 140 a day earlier.

No new deaths were reported, leaving the cumulative death toll at 4,636. Mainland China had 101,077 confirmed cases as of 25 December.

Russia has reported 23, 721 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, down slightly on the 24,946 cases it reported the day before. The country had also reported 968 Covid-linked deaths in the last day.

SydPath medical director professor Anthony Dodds has addressed the media on the 400 false negatives at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. He said no sailors or crew linked to the Sydney to Hobart yacht race were believed to have been impacted.

Owing to the very large volume of tests we’ve been contending with, last night we incorrectly messaged 400 patients who had been swabbed at our centres from 22 December and 23 December, advising them they had tested negative to Covid.

These people in fact had tested positive to Covid. As soon as we became aware of this issue this morning SydPath immediately commenced a process to contact these individuals. An emergency response team is now investigating the cause of this mistake which we believe is due to human error. We sincerely apologise for the mistake that has been made.

To recap Australia’s daily Covid numbers. There have been 9,618 total cases recorded across the country:

• Victoria has recorded 1,608 new cases.
• NSW has reported a record 6,394 Covid cases. St Vincent’s hospital has revealed 400 people were incorrectly told they tested negative yesterday evening. It hasn’t been confirmed whether this brings the official case count to 6,794, which would push the national case count to 10,018.
• The ACT has recorded 71 new local cases.
• Tasmania has recorded 44 new cases.
• South Australia has recorded 774 new Covid cases, prompting the return of some restrictions in the state.
• There have been 714 Covid cases detected in Queensland.
• Western Australia has recorded one local case who wasn’t infectious while in the community.
• The Northern Territory has reported 12 new local cases.

Western Australia has recorded one new Covid case.

The case attended the Perth Mess Hall event, and was also staying at a hostel linked to a previous case.

They tested positive while in quarantine and aren’t considered to have been contagious in the community.

It brings the total number of local cases linked to the current outbreak to eight.

In addition, there was one other case reported overnight – an overseas traveller in hotel quarantine.

Today’s new case came from 3,387 tests.

Case numbers have not yet been released for Western Australia, but if there were 400 further cases that weren’t included in the official daily count in NSW because of the St Vincent’s hospital bungle, then Australia would have recorded more than 10,000 Covid-19 cases in a single day.

NSW would have accounted for the bulk of the cases – almost 7,000.

Here is the full update from the NT’s Michael Gunner. No cases have been found in Nhulunbuy, where positive wastewater was detected:

The Northern Territory has recorded 12 new cases of Covid-19 since our last update.

Four new cases are linked to the current cluster. This brings the total case count for the cluster to 144.

Two new cases are household contacts of previous cases in the Tennant Creek area. They were not infectious in the community.

Two new cases are in the Katherine area and are likely to be linked to previous Katherine area cases. They are in isolation and contact tracing is underway.

Two new cases were locally acquired in household contacts of a traveller from interstate. Six new cases are in interstate arrivals. They are all in isolation at home or at the Centre for National Resilience.

There are currently 18 people with Covid-19 in hospital, including one in ICU. The majority of admissions are for the purposes of infection control and assessment.

1,499 Covid-19 tests were processed across the NT yesterday….Covid-19 testing sites are open in Nhulunbuy, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. Testing is also available at NT Health clinics in remote communities.

Back in Australia, the Northern Territory has recorded 12 new Covid cases, bringing the total number of cases linked to the current outbreak to 144.

There are 18 people in hospital with Covid, including one in ICU.

In a Facebook post, chief minister Michael Gunner said the “majority” of admissions were for infection control and assessment.

Two cases detected in Tennant Creek are household contacts of previous cases and haven’t been infectious in the community, and two cases have been detected in Katherine, likely linked to previous cases with contact tracing underway.

Two new cases were recorded in household contacts of a traveller from interstate, and six further cases were recorded in interstate arrivals.

Western Australia is yet to provide a Covid update after reporting two new cases yesterday.

More on the 206 new cases reported in China today from Reuters, which is the highest daily rise in local Covid cases in the past 21 months.

Infections more than doubled in the northwestern city of Xian, the nation’s latest hotspot. The city of 13 million, which entered its fourth day of lockdown, detected 155 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms for Saturday, up from 75 a day earlier, official data showed on Sunday.

It drove the national daily count to 158, the highest since China managed to contain a nationwide outbreak in early 2020.

Xian, with 485 local symptomatic cases reported between 9 December and 25 December, has imposed heavy-handed measures to rein in the outbreak, in line with Beijing’s policy that any flare-up should be contained as soon as possible.

Residents are unable to leave town without approval from employers or local authorities, and multiple rounds of mass testing have been conducted to identify cases. The city has announced no infections caused by the Omicron variant, although Chinese authorities have reported a handful of Omicron infections among international travellers and in southern China.

Including imported cases, mainland China confirmed 206 new cases on Christmas Day, up from 140 a day earlier. No new deaths were reported, leaving the cumulative death toll at 4,636.

To recap, Covid case numbers across Australia have been released for every state and territory excluding Western Australia and the NT. It brings total cases (so far) in Australia to 9,605.

• Victoria has recorded 1,608 new cases.
• NSW has reported a record 6,394 Covid cases.
• The ACT has recorded 71 new local cases.
• Tasmania has recorded 44 new cases.
• South Australia has recorded 774 new Covid cases, prompting the return of some restrictions in the state..
• There have been 714 Covid cases detected in Queensland.

Tennis player Denis Shapovalov, who is part of Canada’s team for January’s ATP Cup, has tested positive for Covid in Sydney.

Shapovalov played at the World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi last week, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the third-place play-off match. Nadal also tested positive for the virus after playing at the tournament, as did Belinda Bencic and Tunisian Ons Jabeur.

Shapovalov said his symptoms were minor. The ATP prefaces the Australian Open, due to kick-off in mid-January.

The Dominican Republic has identified its first case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the health ministry of the Caribbean country said on Saturday and Reuters reports.

In a statement on Twitter, the ministry said Omicron had been identified in a person with mild symptoms who had arrived in the country from South Africa.

The ministry also said it had later been informed by Chilean authorities that a person who traveled to Chile from the Dominican Republic had tested positive for Omicron.

Other potential cases of Omicron are under investigation.

NSW shadow minister for health Ryan Park has responded to health minister Brad Hazzard’s comments about the Omicron variant earlier today.

Hazzard said it was inevitable everyone in the state would get Omicron, which was what made vaccination rates particularly crucial:

It’s not good enough for the premier to say ‘we’re all going to get Omicron’.

He’s the leader of the state, where’s the planning and where’s the resources and where’s the leadership? Where’s the plans for hospitals? For health workers? Are there enough resources for testing clinics to cope with demand?

We’ve got many people in NSW with Covid symptoms or positive RAT tests without access to a PCR test. Many clinics are closed for the next few days. That’s not good enough.

South Australia has tightened public health and social restrictions in response to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the virus.

Gyms will return to density limits of one person per seven square metres, effective immediately. From midnight, hospitality venues will return to one person per four square metres density limits for indoor dining.

Home gatherings will be reduced to 10 people.

The state was due to further ease restrictions on 28 December. PCR tests will no longer be mandatory for interstate arrivals.

Back in Australia, South Australia has recorded 774 new Covid cases from more than 20,000 tests – another record day of case numbers. It is up from 634 cases detected on Christmas Day as the Omicron variant continues to spread.

There are 17 people currently being treated in hospital, including three in intensive care.

Some 93% of eligible South Australians have received their first dose of a vaccine.

Many Covid testing clinics are closed in Queensland today for the Boxing Day public holiday, but five-day testing after arrival to the state is still mandatory, causing a backlog.

Still in Australia, Queensland has reported 715 new Covid cases, bringing active cases in the state to 2,857. There are seven patients being treated in hospital, and none requiring intensive care.

It comes as Omicron becomes the dominant strain in the state, accounting for about 75% of new cases.

Chief health officer John Gerrard said the fall in case numbers from the previous day followed a testing lull on Christmas Day, and warned case numbers would increase in the coming days:

It won’t surprise us at all if within the next couple of days if the numbers get substantially higher. We would not be too concerned at that, that would not be a surprise.