Britons packed the streets for new year celebrations last night despite Covid-19 infections hitting a new record, and pleas from government to keep socialising to a minimum.
Images showed crowds crammed into places like London’s Leicester Square, while thousands of people were expected to have crossed the borders from Wales and Scotland to dodge tougher restrictions on partying.
It came as the UK notched yet another one-day record for new infections, with 189,846, plus another 203 deaths. Separate figures showed an estimated 2.3 million people had Covid-19 in the week ending 23 December.
Separately, people are being warned not to post pictures of their negative lateral flow tests online, amid fears fraudsters are using social media posts to provide fake results.
Meanwhile, NHS bosses have warned that hospitals may have to ban visitors over the next few weeks to avoid spreading Omicron.
Matthew Taylor, the head of the NHS Confederation, said: “When you’re facing the kind of pressures the health service is going to be under for the next few weeks, this is the kind of thing managers have to do.”
