Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the government is monitoring the covid situation in the UK "hour by hour" as he ruled out implementing new restrictions immediately.
Mr Johnson spoke to the media on Monday evening following a special two-hour Cabinet meeting where ministers discussed how to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.
He also noted that the government reserves the "possibility of taking further action" to protect public health - hinting that more rules and restrictions will only come the moment it's deemed necessary.
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Mr Johnson said: “Unfortunately I must say to people that we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public, to protect public health, to protect our NHS.
“We won’t hesitate to take action.”
It comes after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed there has been an additional 8,044 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 across the UK.
This means that the total confirmed cases of the variant in the UK has now risen to 45,145.
When asked about the prospect of new restrictions, Mr Johnson said: "We are looking at all kinds of things to keep Omicron under control and we will rule nothing out.
“But at the moment what I think we want people to focus on is exercising caution so ventilation, masks in the appropriate places, all the usual stuff about washing hands, but remember how contagious Omicron really is.
“I think what you’re seeing already is the British public understanding that and you can see in people’s patterns of behaviour since we went to Plan B that they are changing the way they go about their lives, they are changing some of the assumptions they make about the things that they want to do.”
The statement comes after members of the public expressed fears of a new coronavirus lockdown in the run-up to Christmas and the new year.
