PM says England can ‘ride out’ Omicron without lockdown but acknowledges service is under huge pressureCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageParts of the NHS may be overwhelmed in the coming weeks, Boris Johnson has admitted for the first time as he insisted England can “ride out” its biggest ever Covid wave “without shutting down our country once again”.The...

Intervention comes as data shows up to 15% of Omicron cases among those who have had coronavirus beforeCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageReinfections should be included in Covid figures for the UK as soon as possible, scientists have said, amid warnings that up to 15% of Omicron cases could be people who have had coronavirus before.At present, daily Covid case figures...

Campaigners led by schoolgirl get permission to site sculpture of palaeontologist on Dorset coast after four-year battleA statue to the 19th-century fossil hunter and palaeontologist Mary Anning, who was once “lost to history”, is finally set to be unveiled in 2022 in her home town of Lyme Regis after a schoolgirl’s four-year campaign.Campaigners, who have overcome bureaucratic red tape and...

Female patients found to have 15% more chance of a bad outcome than if procedure was performed by a womanWomen who are operated on by a male surgeon are much more likely to die, experience complications and be readmitted to hospital than when a woman performs the procedure, research reveals.Women are 15% more liable to suffer a bad outcome, and 32% more likely to die, when a man rather than a...

Latest updates: Imperial College epidemiologist Neil Ferguson ‘cautiously optimistic’ but says weeks ahead could still be difficult for NHS servicesMillions of UK critical workers could get priority Covid testsOmicron infections may have plateaued in London, Neil Ferguson saysHeads warn of weeks of Omicron disruption in English schoolsCoronavirus global updates – liveMatthew Taylor, chief...

Public transport halted and cars banned in Yuzhou as China pursues zero-Covid strategy ahead of Winter OlympicsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThree asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 were enough for Chinese authorities to lock down a city of almost 1.2 million people on Monday, joining 13 million others in locked down Xi’an, where local authorities have asked for...

UK’s disregards and pardons scheme set to be expanded to ‘right wrongs of the past’Any conviction that was imposed on someone purely due to consensual homosexual activity under now-abolished laws will be included in a scheme aimed at “righting the wrongs of the past”, the UK home secretary is set to announce.Priti Patel said more people would have convictions for same-sex sexual activity...

Reduced hospital admissions, new medicines and stronger vaccines are reasons for real optimismDr Raghib Ali is a clinical epidemiologistAs an epidemiologist and NHS consultant, 2022 begins much like 2021 did – I’m again analysing data on the impact of a new Covid variant that threatens to put huge pressure on our hospitals. And I’m back on the frontline in A&E, helping my NHS colleagues...

Activists say crackdown is driven by Xi Jinping, who has ‘declared a war on independent journalism’Chen Kun was living in Indonesia with his wife and daughter when he learned from his brother Mei’s boss that he had been “taken away for investigation” by Chinese police.He immediately suspected it was to do with his brother’s website, a citizen news project called Terminus 2049. Since...

New year resolutions often include eating more healthily, doing exercise and trying to shift some of the extra weight put on over Christmas. Yet research suggests the vast majority of people who do lose weight ultimately end up putting nearly all of it back on. So why is it so difficult? Madeleine Finlay speaks to health journalist and ex-neuroscientist David Cox on the science of metabolism, and...