Nicola Sturgeon has asked for people in Scotland to work from home until the middle of January to prevent the "potentially rapid rise" of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
A similar announcement is expected to be made by the UK's prime minister, Boris Johnson, with wide reports of "Plan B" restrictions to be implemented on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Cases of the Omicron variant have increased in Scotland, shooting up from 28 to 99 in a matter of days, according to the leader of the Scottish National Party. There is also a belief that around 4% of COVID-19 cases north of the border are likely to be the new strain of the virus.
"If you had staff working from home at the start of the pandemic, please now do so again," said Sturgeon according to the Independent. "We're asking you to do this from now until the middle of January when we will review this advice."
"I know how difficult this is, but I cannot stress enough how much difference we think this could make in helping step transmission and avoiding the need for even more onerous measures."
RELATED RESOURCE
Are you ready for the hybrid workplace?
Invest in headsets and webcams to drive worker productivity
The UK government had previously ruled out working from home, suggesting it wasn't necessary, but the greater transmissibility of Omicron might have forced another U-turn. Sage professor Neil Ferguson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the new variant appears to be doubling every two to three days.
"It's likely to overtake Delta before Christmas at this rate, precisely when is hard to say," Ferguson said. "We'll start seeing an impact on overall case numbers - it's still probably only 2%, 3% of all cases so it's kind of swamped, but within a week or two we'll start seeing overall case numbers accelerate quite markedly as well."
The decision to go back to remote working comes as the government faces intense scrutiny over a Christmas party held at Number 10 during last year's lockdown. Some Tory MPs are reportedly concerned that the public may be unwilling to follow new restrictions after a video emerged of Downing Street aides laughing about a social gathering in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
-
Cheap cyber crime kits can be bought on the dark web for less than $25News Research from NordVPN shows phishing kits are now widely available on the dark web and via messaging apps like Telegram, and are often selling for less than $25.
-
Redis unveils new tools for developers working on AI applicationsNews Redis has announced new tools aimed at making it easier for AI developers to build applications and optimize large language model (LLM) outputs.
-
IT professionals aren’t budging on flexible work demands – and more than half say they’ll quit if employers don’t meet expectationsNews Analysis from Randstad shows 40% of UK-based IT pros have quit over a lack of flexible work options, while 31% of workers globally have done the same.
-
'The tide seems to be turning towards office attendance': 64% of hybrid business leaders want staff back in the office – but many worry that enforcing RTO mandates will drive employees awayAnalysis Many UK business leaders want their staff back in the office more frequently, but they’re scared to implement return to office (RTO) mandates in fear of worker revolts.
-
Employees are dead set on flexible working arrangements – three quarters would turn down a role that didn't offer hybrid options as work-life balance becomes more important than payNews New research shows workers are increasingly demanding flexible working arrangements from employers.
-
Nearly half of tech workers are seeking new roles – declining employee benefits and reduced flexible working options have staff looking elsewhereNews While salaries are rising for tech workers, other benefits are in decline, leading to a fall in job satisfaction
-
It's been two weeks since CrowdStrike caused a global IT outage – what lessons should we learn?Opinion The incident on 19 July was possibly the biggest IT outage to date
-
Game-changing data security in secondswhitepaper Lepide’s real-time in-browser demo
-
Unlocking the opportunities of open banking and beyondwhitepaper The state of play, the direction of travel, and best practices from around the world
-
Accelerated, gen AI powered mainframe app modernization with IBM watsonx code assistant for Zwhitepaper Many top enterprises run workloads on IBM Z
