Here are the morning headlines for Wednesday, January 12, as ministers in Wales will look at easing restrictions when they are reviewed next week.
Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford offered the prospect as Scotland announced it was lifting all crowd restrictions at sports games outdoors.
He was speaking at the Senedd just hours after the latest figures from Public Health Wales showed that the infection rate had fallen for the third day. Read about when restrictions on sport could be lifted here.
The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales, based on the seven days up to January 6 is 1,780.5 – a significant drop on the 1,997.1 recorded on Monday. The weekly infection rate has now been falling since January 2. Cases for your area here.
A review of lockdown restrictions in Wales is due to be held again this Friday, January 14, with another review a week afterwards on Friday January 21, which Mr Drakeford appears to be focusing on as a potential point when restrictions could be eased.
"Next week will be the end of a three week review period," said Mr Drakeford. "If we are very fortunate, and it's a very big if, and we find that we have passed that peak and we are on a reliable reduction in impact of coronavirus on us then we will look to see what we can do to relax some of the protections that we've had to put in place but we will not do it until we are confident that the scientific and medical advice to us is that it is safe to move in that direction."
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said Wales was an outlier with "overzealous restrictions on sport".
Wales' rules were last tightened on 26 December, meaning no more than 50 people can attend a sporting event in Wales - with many teams having to play behind closed doors.
Social distancing restrictions are in place in businesses, and a rule of six applies in hospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants.
Boris Johnson to face grilling over drinks party
Boris Johnson will face MPs on Wednesday at Prime Minister's Questions amid demands for him to say whether he attended a drinks event in the Downing Street garden during lockdown.
It will be the PM's first public appearance since an email in which Mr Johnson's principal private secretary Martin Reynolds invited Downing Street staff to the gathering in May 2020 was leaked. One Welsh nurse who lost colleagues revealed her anger at the claims.
It is the latest of a string of leaks and reports about lockdown parties occurring in No 10. Up until now, they have focused on the period surrounding Christmas 2020, when the country was under its second lockdown.
Mr Johnson has so far declined to say whether he attended it, and wasn't in the Commons on Tuesday to answer an urgent question on the subject from Labour.
Anger has come from many directions, including within the Tory Party. Backbencher Nigel Mills has warned that any senior figure who willingly attended the event could not have a position where they were responsible for setting Covid-19 policy.
"It is utterly untenable, we have seen people resign for far less than that. If the Prime Minister knowingly attended a party, I can't see how he can survive," he told BBC News.
Djokovic admits attending interview while Covid positive
Tennis player Novak Djokovic has admitted to making an “error of judgement” by attending an interview with a French newspaper journalist while Covid positive.
In a statement posted on Djokovic’s Instagram account, he said he attended a children’s tennis event the day after being tested for Covid-19.
“I had not received the notification of a positive PCR test result until after that event,” the statement said.
“The next day, on 18 December I was at my tennis centre in Belgrade to fulfil a long-standing commitment for a L’Equipe interview and photoshoot. I cancelled all other events except for the L’Equipe interview.
“I felt obliged to go ahead and conduct the L’Equipe interview as I didn’t want to let the journalist down, but did ensure I socially distanced and wore a mask except when my photograph was being taken.
“While I went home after the interview to isolate for the required period, on reflection, this was an error of judgement and I accept that I should have rescheduled this commitment.”
Djokovic’s statement also addressed the widely reported discrepancy in his travel declaration, published by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia earlier this week. He attributed it to “human error” on behalf of his agent.
500 former teachers help out at English schools
Around 500 former teachers have signed up with supply agencies to tackle staff shortages in England's schools, data suggests.
It comes after Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi urged ex-teachers to temporarily return to the profession to help with Covid-19 absences.
Initial data published by the Department for Education (DfE) - from around 10% of supply agencies - suggests 485 former teachers have signed up.
Meanwhile, a further 100 Teach First alumni - who trained to become teachers through their programme but now work outside the profession - have "expressed an interest" in supporting the workforce.
But heads' unions said the numbers "barely scratch the surface" and are "a drop in the ocean" compared to the challenge caused by the Omicron variant.
The warning comes after the DfE estimated that one in 12 (8.6%) of teachers and school leaders in England - around 44,000 of staff - were absent at the start of term last week, up from 8.0% on December 16.
1.1 million in England 'have only had one jab'
More than a million people in England have only had one Covid-19 vaccine, the NHS has said as it encouraged people to come forward for their second jab.
Last week more than 200,000 Covid-19 vaccines were given to people getting their second jab, NHS England said.
More than half of these (55%) had delayed getting their second dose for five or more weeks after becoming eligible for it.
The health service has urged people who have delayed getting their second jab to come forward.
It is estimated that around 1.1 million adults in England have only had their first dose and have not yet received their second dose, even though they are now eligible.
More than 40 million people have received both doses of the vaccine in England. A total of 2,497,658 people have received one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 2,328,295 have been given both doses. Meanwhile 1,740,099 people have been given their booster jabs in Wales. Vaccination rates in Wales here.
Seven million new Omicron cases recorded in Europe last week
There were more than seven million new cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 across Europe in the first week of January, more than doubling in two weeks, the World Health Organisation has said.
WHO Europe director Dr Hans Kluge said at a media briefing on Tuesday that 26 countries in its region reported that more than 1% of their populations are being infected with Covid-19 each week, warning there is a "closing window of opportunity" for countries to prevent their health systems from being overwhelmed.
He cited estimates from the Institute of Health Metrics at the University of Washington that projected half of the population in western Europe will be infected with Covid-19 in the next six to eight weeks.
"Omicron moves faster and wider than any (previous) variant we have seen," he said.
Dr Kluge called for countries to mandate the use of masks indoors and to prioritise vaccination, including booster doses, of at-risk populations, including health workers and older people.
The WHO's Geneva headquarters has previously pleaded with rich countries not to offer booster doses and to donate them instead to poorer countries where vulnerable groups have yet to be immunised.
Dr Kluge said he was greatly concerned that as Omicron moves east across Europe, the variant will take a much higher toll on countries with lower vaccination coverage rates.
In Denmark, he noted the hospital admission rate was six times higher in people who were not vaccinated compared with those who had been immunised.
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