Covid updates across Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland

Wales
Welsh ministers have urged people to be cautious when socialising indoors at Christmas but insist it’s “too early to say if there will be festive restrictions.”
Although no cases of Omicron have been found yet in Wales, there have been at least 22 cases identified in the rest of the UK and Welsh officials have warned it is “inevitable” it will cross the border sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Eluned Morgan said a “jabs army” would be back in force to deliver much needed booster jabs to get residents through the winter season.
Ms Morgan said: “We will be pulling in all the volunteers that we can, calling on all the services we can: local authorities, fire brigade, army, everybody. We need to roll this out as quickly as we can.”

Scotland
All current cases of the Omicron variant in Scotland have been linked back to a single event on 20th November.
Five of the nine Scottish cases are in Lanarkshire and four are in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area.
Ms Sturgeon said: “The lack of any known travel or overseas connection to the cases suggested there was community transmission of the variant in Scotland.

“However, the fact that all known cases are so far linked to a single event suggests that this may still be limited.

“Indeed, there is so far nothing in the wider look back exercise that Public Health Scotland has undertaken to suggest that community transmission of the new variant is either sustained or widespread.”

Northern Ireland
Residents in Northern Ireland are being encouraged to get their booster jabs after it was revealed the country had the “lowest uptake of the shot in the UK.”
Health Minister Robin Swann said the aim was to give boosters to all eligible age groups “as quickly as possible.”

He urged the public not to be “put off getting their first, second or booster doses due to concerns or speculation about the Omicron variant.”