All four nations of the UK are to take part in an emergency meeting to discuss Covid restrictions this afternoon.
The meeting of the Government's emergency COBRA committee comes days after Prime Minister Borish Johnson announced new Covid restrictions for England.
Michael Gove will chair a four nations COBRA meeting with the devolved leaders.
They will discuss coordinating the Covid response across the UK - which could include tough nationwide measures.
Professor Neil Ferguson, SAGE expert, has said a UK-wide lockdown cannot be ruled out.
Downing Street said there was growing confidence that the new variant spreads much faster than the Delta strain and there was some evidence of vaccine escape.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "Given the ongoing situation with the Omicron variant, we think it's a sensible time to have those discussions with the devolved administrations to further our ongoing coordination work."
They added: "This variant has some significantly concerning characteristics.
"We are confident that it spreads much faster than Delta and there is growing evidence of vaccine escape which is of concern and potentially means that we are going to see increasing hospitalisation rates and sadly deaths."
