This is perhaps one of the most uncertain points of the pandemic since the beginning of March 2020.
The Omicron variant is driving confirmed cases to the highest numbers since mass testing became available, with a record 106,122 new infections recorded today.
However scientists and public health officials are not yet clear whether we will see a dangerous rise in hospital admissions, putting the NHS at risk of collapse.
READ MORE: ICU ward where unvaccinated patients as young as 30 face death
Boris Johnson and the cabinet have decided to hold off from imposing any new restrictions before Christmas day but have stressed new measures may come in before or around the New Year.
What is clear is that the Omicron variant is better at evading the vaccine than Delta, and booster jabs are essential to prevent unnecessary deaths and severe illness.
As at other points during the months of the pandemic, misinformation and conspiracy theories continue to swirl particularly on social media - where total nonsense can be seen by and influence millions of people with lightening speed.
Here are some common myths and why they are wrong according to experts:
The vaccine is not safe
In what was undoubtedly a dispiriting piece of news, earlier this year regulators confirmed a link between the Astrazeneca/Oxford jab and a rare but serious type of blood clot called Cerebral Venous Thrombosis (CVT).
Many people were understandably worried as some Governments announced they were pausing the rollout and urgent investigations would take place.
But it has since emerged the chances of dying from a blood clot are incredibly slim - around one in a million - while the chances of developing the clot at all are around 10 in a million - according to data from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Scientists have also been keen to stress covid can also cause CVT - and in fact your chances of developing CVT after being infected are between eight to 10 times higher than they are after receiving the vaccine.
Any minute risk posed by the jabs are dwarfed by the number of lives saved from covid.
According to Public Health England (PHE), modelling suggests that 230,800 hospitalisations have been prevented in those aged 45 years and over in England as a result of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, up to September 5 this year.
PHE also said in August that around 100,000 deaths had been prevented thanks to the vaccines.
Why should I take a vaccine when the risk of death are low?
One common slogan among the anti-vaccine crowd is that there is no need to take a vaccine for a disease with a "99.7% recovery rate".
However, statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest this figure is inaccurate.
According to data from the REACT 2 study in June 2020, the death rate in the population as a whole was around 0.9%, meaning roughly one person in every 100 infected with covid will die.
And of course that rate changes for at risk groups including the elderly and those with certain underlying conditions.
Another consideration is the word "recover".
The ONS state around 1.2million people in the UK self-reported the effects of so-called long covid by September this year alone.
The symptoms can be crippling, with symptoms listed on the NHS website including extreme fatigue, problems with memory and concentration (brain fog), joint pain, shortness of breath, depression and anxiety and more.
It's no worse than flu
This one is common and has been addressed many times - but continually rears it head.
And one of the main reasons for this incorrect conclusion is the fact that flu rates have dramatically dropped since the beginning of the pandemic.
This has led some people to believe all the "missing" flu cases are being misdiagnosed as covid.
However, as any qualified medic will attest, this is simply nonsense.
Dr Richard Wenstone, a consultant intensivist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, described suggestions that a large number of flu cases were being mistaken for covid as "utter b******s".
He added: "They're different viruses, they show up differently on lab tests for viruses, they don't have exactly the same symptoms, they do different things to the body, and we use different treatments."
The reality is while flu can and does cause significant problems for the NHS in the winter season, its mortality rate is considerably less than Covid-19 - according to the World Health Organization and the NHS.
During the pandemic there have been unprecedented measures to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses than ever before including mass travel bans, lockdowns, social distancing and the sealing off of care homes - which will have massively impacted the spread of flu
Covid, however, is a novel virus and attacked a population with no natural immunity. And until the end of last year there was no vaccine available, whereas flu vaccines are rolled out every winter.
In a press conference last year the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said on average, the annual death toll from flu is around 7-8,000 people - rising to in the region of 20,000 if there is a particularly bad flu season.
In contrast, more than 150,000 people have died from covid since March 2020 in the UK.
Professor William Hope, director of the city's Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases Research (CEIDR) and also holder of the Dame Sally Davies chair of Antimicrobial Resistance at the University of Liverpool, previously told the ECHO: "I don't think there can be any doubt at the moment that coronavirus is much more dangerous.
"It is a new virus and we have already seen the death rate is higher than an ordinary flu season.
"It has a high transmissibility and even a small mortality rate results in a lot of death."
Covid vaccines are "experimental" and "skipped trials" before approval
It is understandable many people had questions about how quickly vaccines were approved compared to the usual years of trials.
But those questions have been comprehensively answered by scientists and independent regulators.
Contrary to disinformation spreading on social media, no covid vaccine approved for use in the UK has skipped any stage of trials, including animal trials.
According to Reuters, the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, the first one to win emergency approval in the UK, underwent Phase 3 trials involving 46,331 participants at 153 sites across the world - and the results are here.
The Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine trials involved 23,848 people across the UK, Brazil, and South Africa between April and November 2020, according to a report published by the Oxford Vaccine Group.
Both vaccines underwent trials in animals in multiple countries.
Claims have also been made about the technology behind the vaccines, including that they interfere with human DNA.
This is false.
The Astrazeneca vaccine uses so called viral vector technology - using weakened adenovirus cells to train the body's immune system to attack coronavirus spikes.
This type of vaccine has been used to fight ebola, and in studies attempting to develop vaccines for other diseases.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology, which takes a part of the coronavirus DNA to train the immune system to attack the real virus.
They are the first vaccines using this method to be administered to humans, but the technology has been studied and tested for years.
Vaccines can 'shed' from immunised people to others
Among the more bizarre theories swirling round certain corners of social media is that vaccinated people can "shed" to non-vaccinated people, and cause fertility problems in women.
This is completely untrue.
As stated above the vaccine trains the immune system to produce antibodies, and cannot shed to other people.
Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told fact checking organisation Full Fact: “I can’t think of any biologically plausible mechanism for shedding of components of any of the licensed Covid-19 vaccines after immunisation."
Omicron is milder so we do not need vaccines or social distancing
Scientists are still very much unsure on what the data on Omicron means.
Studies from South Africa, where Omicron first emerged, and a recent study from Scotland suggest the disease may be milder and lead to less hospitalisations.
However it's extremely difficult to determine whether this relates to immunity from vaccines and previous infections or whether it is because Omicron itself is less dangerous.
Another factor is the sheer enormity of the numbers of infections caused by Omicron's higher transmissibility.
Whether there are so many infections even a small percentage of hospitalisations will translate into a big enough number to threaten hospitals is the million dollar question.
London has seen a 42% rise in covid hospitalisations, and although rates in the rest of the UK have remained relatively stable many are worried about what January will bring.
Professor Matt Ashton, director of public health at Liverpool Council, told the ECHO yesterday: "What we have learned over the last two years of the pandemic is that a rise in Covid-19 cases is followed by a rise in hospital admissions, followed by intensive care cases and then, sadly, deaths.
"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is a trajectory that we will see again as a result of the sheer infectiousness of the omicron variant.
"We know that every infected person infects another three to five people, sometimes more, and that as a result case numbers in the north west are doubling every 2-3 days.
“In Liverpool we have already seen a rapid increase in our confirmed Covid-19 cases of 46% in the last week to around 3,500 - and the number of PCR tests being returned as positive is rising.
"Confirmed case numbers now are already higher than our last significant peak in October last year and may well match or exceed the highest we have seen throughout the pandemic, which was in January 2021.
“On a positive note, we do now have the vaccine programme which will significantly reduce the number of serious illnesses and deaths for those who are fully vaccinated with two doses plus the booster.
"But we need to remember that the NHS only has a finite number beds and staff.
"Plus, Covid-19 infections in the general population can also lead to large numbers of staff absence, which is why it is incumbent on us all to do what we can to make sure we play our part in reducing infections to mitigate the impact on its services."
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