Fines of £10,000 could be issued for those who fail to self-isolate after coming into contact with an Omicron Covid case in England - regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not.
New restrictions introduced to curb infections mean that people who have come into contact with a positive Omicron case must self-isolate and stay at home for 10 days.
It's part of a set of temporary measures which have been put in place to try and slow the spread of the new variant.
The new rules came into force at 4am on Tuesday (30 November) and include the legally mandated wearing of face masks in some indoor settings.
READ MORE: How effective are face coverings at reducing the spread of Covid-19? - including new variant
Meanwhile, anyone who has been in contact with a positive Omicron case will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace, reports the Mirror.
Failure to abide by the rules will lead to fines that start at £1,000 and rise to £10,000 for repeat offenders.
All adults will have to self-isolate irrespective of whether they have been vaccinated
So far there are only 14 confirmed Omicron cases but there are fears that there could actually be hundreds of positive cases due to limitation in testing.
Only 20 percent of labs are currently able to detect the new strain.
The new rules on self-isolating have followed new regulations also on mask wearing with people now having to wear them in shops and on public transport.
People arriving into the UK will need to take a PCR test and go into quarantine before they get a negative Covid result.
With the Omicron variant having been first detected in South Africa, the country as well as nine others, have been put on the UK’s red list.
The government has upped its booster programme to tackle a surge in cases and it is hoping that this would stop a new lockdown over Christmas.
Sajid Javid has said it is important that everyone who can gets vaccinated.
He said: "If we want to give ourselves the best chance of a Christmas with our loved ones, the best thing we all do is step up.
"Roll up our sleeves and get protected when the time comes."
