The number of people who are allowed to visit residents of care home facilities will be limited to three named visitors and one essential caregiver as of Wednesday 15 December.

This move is part of a series of measures intended to stem the spread of the omicron variant and was announced Friday evening.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Saturday, Nadra Ahmed, the chairwoman of the National Care Association said that it was an issue that homes had been given such limited notice around changing their visiting policies.

“Friday night, this was yesterday, it was announced, and then we have to put it into place by Wednesday with a weekend in the middle and providers will have been making all those appointments with people already,” she said.

“We really would like the days when we could have an open house and people came and went as they could, but we can’t do that anymore.

“I think that is an issue for us. We will have very few days to get it into place.”

Formula One starts team up to promote Covid jabs

Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris have teamed up alongside other Formula One stars to promote Covid-19 vaccines in a short film, ahead of Sunday’s F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Seven-time world champion Mr Hamilton says in the video: “We’re finding our way back to the things we love but Covid has not gone away”.

Mr Verstappen is pictured wearing a face mask, and urges people to “please do your bit”.

F1 Group chief executive Stefano Domeniacali says: “I’ve had my vaccine – actually, I did my booster. Do your bit please”.

Around two dozen civil servants who worked on the Autumn Spending Review last year had office drinks while England was in lockdown, The Times has reported.

The newspaper quoted a Treasury spokesperson who confirmed that a “small number” of staff had “impromptu drinks around their desks” on 25 November 2020.

Other sources told the paper: “They’d all been working really hard … They had to be in the office anyway that day. It wasn’t a formal party but perhaps in hindsight it wasn’t the most sensible thing to do.”

At the time, non-essential shops, leisure facilities and entertainment venues were closed, as were pubs, bars and restaurants. People had also been urged to stay at home except to exercise and to get groceries.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak was not reported to have been at the event, and it is understood that he was not aware of the gathering at the time.

Taiwan has recorded its first case of the highly infectious omicron variant of Covid, its government confirmed today.

The case was detected in a traveller from Eswatini, who like all new arrivals into Taiwan had already been placed in quarantine, the Central Epidemic Command Centre said.

The traveller was asymptomatic. Ten other people seated in front of and behind the traveller on the incoming flight had been under home quarantine and had all tested negative, the centre said.

India’s financial capital, Mumbai has ordered a two day ban on large gatherings, after the city reported three new omicron cases, taking the total tally in the country to 32.

The restrictions prohibit rallies and protest marches involving people and vehicles for the next two days and will be in effect on Saturday and Sunday.

Maharashtra, the state housing Mumbai, reported seven new cases of the omicron variant on Friday, including a child aged three-and-a-half, said the state’s health department.

According to new modelling released by the Public Health Agency of Canada, the country could record over 10,000 cases a day before January if the infections from delta and omicron continue to rise.

The agency said that Canada is observing “a gradual but steady increase” in infections and it fears the cases could jump to 12,000 a day in January if “omicron successfully establishes” itself.

The resurgence in the caseload could be a result of omicron’s “greater transmissibility” and the potential for “reduced protection from prior infection/vaccination”, said PHAC.

An analysis by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) found AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines provided “much lower” levels of protection against symptomatic infection with omicron compared to the delta variant.

The health officials have, however, found that a booster dose “significantly reduced” the risk of symptomatic infection with the new variant as they urged eligible individuals to get their third jab.

The preliminary data, which looked at 581 people with confirmed omicron, suggested effectiveness seemed to “increase considerably” in the early period after a booster dose, giving around 70 to 75 per cent protection against symptomatic infection.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at the UKHSA, said while their early data should be treated with caution, it indicates that “a few months after the second jab, there is a greater risk of catching the omicron variant compared to delta strain”.

She added: “The data suggest this risk is significantly reduced following a booster vaccine, so I urge everyone to take up their booster when eligible.”

Initial data analysis by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that Covid-19 vaccine booster doses are effective against the new and highly infectious omicron variant, said the agency’s director Rochelle Walensky during a White House briefing on Friday.

Meanwhile, the weekly average coronavirus cases and deaths in the country was up by 37.3 per cent compared with the previous week’s moving average of 86,315 infections. The average number of deaths also climbed by 28 per cent, said Ms Walensky.

Welcome to The Independent’s live blog covering the latest developments on the Covid-19 pandemic and the new omicron variant for Saturday 11 December.