People in England face being hit with a £10,000 fine if they don’t self-isolate after coming into contact with an Omicron variant case.
Strict new rules for Omicron mean that people need to stay at home and self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of how many jabs they have had.
The government is moving to try and slow the spread of the new variant with the new rules that came into force at 4am on Tuesday.
Anyone who has been in contact with a positive Omicron case will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace.
And failure to abide by the rules will lead to fines that start at £1,000 and rise to £10,000 for repeat offenders.
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 and only 20% 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.
For people arriving into the UK they 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."
