England has tightened measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Covid passes are set to become mandatory in nightclubs and venues where large crowds gather from next week, the prime minister has announced.
The news comes as England moves to its winter Plan B to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
The NHS Covid Pass will be required to gain entry to unseated indoor venues with more than 500 people, unseated outdoor venues with more than 5,000 people and any venue with more than 10,000 people.
Face masks will also be made mandatory in most indoor public venues, including cinemas and theatres, from Friday (10 December), while guidance to work from home is set to be reintroduced for those who can do so from Monday (13 December).
Announcing the measures, Boris Johnson said that two doses of the vaccine will be sufficient for a Covid pass, but this will be kept under review as boosters are rolled out. A negative lateral flow test will also be acceptable.
Johnson also urged people to exercise due caution with Christmas parties.
"It's okay, on what we can see, to keep going with Christmas parties, but obviously everyone should exercise due caution. Have ventilation, wash your hands, get a test before you go. Give everyone else at the party the confidence that they're going to be meeting someone that is not contagious."
He added that daily tests will be introduced instead of self-isolation in a bid to minimise the disruption to daily life.
“It’s now the proportionate and the responsible thing to move to plan B,” he said. “But the single biggest thing that everyone of us can do is to get our jabs and crucially to get that booster as soon as our turn arrives."
Johnson revealed that NHS staff and volunteers have already administered almost 21 million boosters - and spoke of the need to "go further and faster still" because scientists are confident that boosters will make people's immune responses stronger.
England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said: “The data here is now clear. Omicron is going up incredibly fast.
“The aim of the measures announced by the prime minister is to slow things down, but it is doubling currently between two and three days. That is an extraordinarily fast rate."
In response to a question from a member of the public on whether the government would make vaccines mandatory, Johnson said "it is not the way we do things in this country," before adding: "If we can show the vaccines are holding out against Omicron then there may well have to be discussions over vaccinations in the future".
He added that fully vaccinated travellers face quarantine because it has been necessary to have "very tough border measures" to slow the arrival of Omicron in the UK.
M&IT editor Paul Harvey is a journalist with more than 15 years of experience. He began his career in the local press, working for various titles across the north. Since joining M&IT in 2013, he has become a trusted and respected voice in the sector, championing event professionals and reporting on all aspects of the events industry for the brand.
