Watch live as Boris Johnson holds press conference on Omicron Covid variant

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is holding a press conference after two cases of the new Omicron variant of Covid were detected in the UK.

Johnson will be joined by his chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance as well as England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty as they set out what the government plans to do to tackle the new strain of Covid-19 that the WHO has deemed a “variant of concern”.

Earlier, Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced that four more countries would be added to the UK’s red list in response to Omicron.

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