Boris Johnson is not planning to announce any new covid restrictions in England until after Christmas.
The Prime Minister is under mounting pressure to act after Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland will all see stricter measures as early as Boxing Day.
But senior government sources have said no announcement will be made until December 27 at the earliest, the Mirror reports.
READ MORE: Symptom differences between Omicron, Delta, a cold and the flu
The news come as early data suggests the Omicron variant is less severe than previous variants.
Imperial College London research indicates people with Omicron are 15-20% less likely to enter hospital, and 40-45% less likely to need a hospital stay of one night or more, than people with Delta.
Yet Imperial warned this “appears to be offset” by the speed at which the variant is spreading - with confirmed cases topping 100,000 a day for the first time.
Imperial’s Professor Paul Elliott warned the R number is “now substantially above 1” due to Omicron.
SAGE member Prof Andrew Hayward told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s undeniably good news, but I think we’re definitely not out of the danger zone.
“I think perhaps we can downgrade this from a hurricane to a very severe storm.
“The NHS is already immensely overstretched and I think that’s just going to get worse.”
While data will be reviewed daily - including on Boxing Day - there are not expected to be any announcements either way before Christmas.
That suggests, unless there is a sudden further deterioration, no announcement is likely until December 27 at the earliest.
With Parliament taking around two days to recall, that could suggest no measures would take force until around December 29 at the earliest.
But December 27 and 28 are both bank holidays, slowing down the process.
One source told the FT legally enforceable measures were not likely to take force before 2022 - though "guidance" before then was possible.
A Whitehall official told the paper: "We would struggle to see regulations kick in before the new year".
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
