AN EMERGENCY Cobra meeting will be held this weekend as the Omicron crisis gripping Britain deepens.
Senior ministers from all four countries of the UK will gather to discuss a common response to the threat from the new variant.
It will be the second emergency get-together in the space of days with alarm over the spread of the mutant strain increasing.
There have been three consecutive days of record cases with new UK infections yesterday toping 90,000.
The meeting was announced after Boris Johnson held crisis talks with Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon today.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister and the First Minister agreed on the importance of close collaboration for the benefit of citizens across the UK.
“They discussed the shared challenges including the economic disruption caused by Covid and will continue to work together.
“The Prime Minister confirmed UK Government will be convening a Cobra meeting over the weekend with counterparts from the devolved administrations to continue discussions.”
Ms Sturgeon said Omicron is now Scotland’s dominant coronavirus strain adding “the tsunami I warned about a week ago is now starting to hit us”.
She’s already imposed harsher restrictions than in England by telling Scots to restrict socialising to just three households over the Christmas period.
By slapping the country with the toughest measures in months she’s piled pressure on Boris Johnson to also tighten mixing curbs in England.
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The First Minister said the advice wouldn’t apply to main celebrations with friends and family on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing day.
In a gloomy address to MSPs she said she was “not asking anyone to cancel Christmas”, but advised people to limit their socialising either side of the holiday.
Ms Sturgeon said: “My key request today is this: before and immediately after Christmas, please minimise your social mixing with other households as much as you can.
“However, if you do plan on socialising, either at home or in indoor public places, we are asking that you limit the number of households represented in your group to a maximum of three. And make sure you test before you go.”
Omicron is spreading like wildfire in the UK including large parts of Scotland.
There have now been 15,000 confirmed cases and scientists say the variant is doubling every couple of days.
Welsh leader Mark Drakeford announced that he’s closing the country’s nightclubs after Boxing Day.
He’ll also reintroduce social distancing in shops and workplaces after telling people to brace for the “storm of Omicron”.
For now Boris is sticking to his Plan B restrictions in England, although he has urged people think of reducing their social contacts.
Meanwhile schools are already drawing up plans to stay shut after the Christmas holidays due to the spread of Omicron.
And there are reports ministers are fleshing out draconian Plan C restrictions to come into force in January.
They could include the reintroduction of social “bubbles” and further indoor mask rules.
Government officials are said to have been “spooked” into looking at further restrictions as fears over Omicron continues to grip the nation.
But No 10 could struggle to get any new measures through Parliament after suffering a crushing rebellion on vaccine passports last night.
A whopping 99 Tory MPs opposed their imposition, leaving the PM relying on Labour’s support to win the vote.
