‘But I need to speak to you this evening because I’m afraid we’re now facing an emergency in our battle with the new variant Omicron and we must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection to keep our friends and loved ones safe.

‘Earlier today the UK’s four chief medical officers raised the Covid alert level to four – it’s second highest level- because of the evidence that Omicron is doubling here in the UK every two to three days.

‘We know from bitter experience how these exponential curves develop. No one should be in any doubt there is a tidal wave of Omicron coming and I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need…

‘Do not make the mistake of thinking Omicron can’t hurt you, can’t make you and your loved ones seriously ill. We’ve already seen hospitalisations doubling in a week in South Africa and we have patients with Omicron in hospital here in the UK right now.