UK Covid: Johnson admits some hospitals already feel overwhelmed at times – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. For more coronavirus news from around the world, head to our global blog

• 100,000 key workers in England told to test every working day
• UK reports almost 220,000 new Covid cases
• Scientists call for Covid reinfections in UK to be included in case figures
• Two more NHS trusts declare critical incidents over staff Covid absences
• Coronavirus global updates - live

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told Times Radio this morning that he feared ministers were engaged in a politicised attempt" to play down the seriousness of the Omicron crisis. He said:

We should feel some hope and confidence about the medium term, that we hope we will gradually become more able to live with Covid as the prime minister has said, that when Omicron has gone through us that we make it to that stage and the NHS will recover.

On the other hand, we've got to recognise where we are now, that, in the next few weeks at least, things are very, very difficult and I think that one thing that people in our service find difficult is that it does seem as though there's a kind of almost politicised attempt to suggest that things aren't as difficult as they are ...

The government has to make this balance between public health on the one hand and pressures on the NHS on the other hand [and] people's desire to socialise. That's a very difficult judgement.

What I'm saying is that judgment needs to be driven by the data and what's in the best interests of the country. It doesn't, shouldn't be driven by a kind of political virility symbolism, where the sooner we can be free, the better it is, regardless of the effect.