It's crunch time for people's Christmas plans as they may soon find out if these will be affected by Covid restrictions.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said he could not guarantee that more restrictions won't be imposed in the run-up to Christmas.

He told Sky News: "I think we will have a much better Christmas than last year because of the vaccination level - both the overall vaccination level and particularly the impact of the booster campaign.

"People will need to be careful and cautious.

"But I do think, again subject to the data - and it's always under review - that we're in a better position to enjoy Christmas with loved ones this year."

Asked if more restrictions would be imposed between now and Christmas Day, Mr Raab said: "I just can't make hard, fast guarantees."

But Mr Raab added he did not anticipate Parliament being recalled to vote on new restrictions before Christmas.

With the faster spreading Omicron variant there were 82,886 cases of coronavirus overall in the UK in the 24 hours up to yesterday (Sunday) compared with 25,136 in the same period up to to December 19, 2020.

The amount of confirmed infections overall in Kent in seven days up to December 14 was 12,094, a rate of 761.1 per 100,000 population.

In Medway infections were at 2,084 with a rate of 746.6 in the same period.

Both were above the UK rate of 646 for the same period.

New coronavirus measures before Christmas were also not ruled out by Health Secretary Sajid Javid yesterday.

He said there are “no guarantees” following a “sobering analysis” from scientific advisers warning about the threat from Omicron.

Mr Javid said while there remains uncertainty about the new variant, it was time to be “more cautious” amid the rapid spread of the strain.

Scientists have been advising the government to impose harsher restrictions.

The Daily Telegraph says the options range from guidance asking people to limit indoor contacts, to rules on household mixing, social distancing and a curfew on pubs and restaurants, and thirdly a full lockdown.

Mr Javid said that if new rules were proposed, Parliament would be recalled to approve them.

But yesterday Boris Johnson skipped an emergency Cobra meeting despite the looming prospect of tougher measures.

Around one third of the Cabinet are said to be reluctant to support new restrictions in the coming days, with Prime Minister Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak among them, according to The Times.

The paper reports 10 ministers are resisting a call by the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance at the weekend for new restrictions to be brought in as soon as possible to prevent the health service being overwhelmed.

Advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), published at the weekend, warned there are likely already hundreds of thousands of new Omicron infections every day in England and that hospital admissions with the variant in the UK are “probably around one tenth of the true number” due to a lag in reporting.

Figures for the 24-hour period up to Friday showed the worst ever daily rate of overall Covid-19 cases since the pandemic first struck the UK in early 2020. It was 93,045.

Yet deaths for that period were 111 compared to 538 in the 24 hours up to December 17, 2020, which is widely credited to the vaccination programme.

That has been speeded up in the last few weeks with a record 830,403 booster injections given in England on Saturday, and the number closer to a million when first and second doses were included.