UK offers 1 billion pounds to firms hit hardest by Omicron

• Britain announced on Tuesday 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) of extra support for businesses hit hardest by the wave of Omicron variant coronavirus cases, which is hammering the country's hospitality sector and other businesses. 
• Finance minister Rishi Sunak said he was confident the measures would help hundreds of thousands of businesses. But he added that he would "respond proportionately and appropriately" if the government were to impose further restrictions to slow Omicron. 
• For now, hospitality businesses in England are not subject to any new legal restrictions despite a 60% surge in COVID-19 cases over the past week, which has taken the number of infections to around 90,000 a day. 
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was not enough evidence to justify new COVID-19 restrictions in England before Christmas, but the situation remained extremely difficult and the government might need to act afterwards.

(Source: Reuters)