UK government rules out new restrictions before Christmas

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The British government says it won’t introduce any new coronavirus restrictions until after Christmas, and called early studies on the severity of the omicron variant encouraging. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said two studies suggesting omicron carries a significantly lower risk of hospitalization than the previously dominant delta strain was “encouraging news.” But he said it was “not very clear yet…by how much that risk is reduced.” Even if it is milder, the new variant could still overwhelm health systems because of the sheer number of infections. Javid said the British government would “keep analyzing (the) data and if we need to do anything more we will, but nothing more is going to happen before Christmas.”