Covid: Boosters on Christmas Day, and PM praises 'invaluable' gift of jab

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Christmas Eve morning.

It may be Christmas Day tomorrow, but people in England will still be able to get a Covid booster jab if they wish. NHS staff and volunteers are giving up their time with family and friends to help the UK's booster rollout - and there are about 200,000 first, second or booster appointments still bookable over the festive period. Separately, officials will also be working to fix supply chain delays with home tests, after the UK Health Security Agency acknowledged there is an issue with deliveries to some pharmacies.

Omicron has dominated news headlines over the past few weeks, as scientists, politicians and indeed all of us grapple with what this new wave means for our lives. Restrictions are tightening in parts of the UK and elsewhere, and there's a constant stream of new information - some worrying, some positive. So where do we stand? Our health correspondent James Gallagher outlines what we know right now. We're in a better place than last winter and Omicron is less severe, he says - but we're not sure what will happen when Omicron hits the elderly and booster protection wanes. Here's a run-down of where we're at.

Boris Johnson has used his Christmas message to the country to urge people to get boosted, saying that getting the jab showed "that we should love our neighbours as we love ourselves". He described getting the booster vaccine as an "invisible and invaluable present" that people are giving each other. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also urged people to get boosted in her Christmas message, saying the vaccination campaign had been "a source of brightness during a really difficult month", and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer thanked NHS staff for showing Christian values of kindness.

Prospective property buyers have returned to cities, and flats were the most highly in demand type of property by the autumn. That's according to property portal Rightmove which has been looking at the data and trends. At the start of the pandemic, buyers were in a race for space with larger, coastal or rural properties, Rightmove says - but as workers returned to offices, interest in apartments revived. But the property portal says we have not yet returned to the pre-pandemic property market, and there has been a long-term shift with buyers willing to pay more for space and privacy.

A mother has said it is "a Christmas dream come true" after her two children, twins Orin and Olivia Arthur, have had their first Covid jabs. The seven-year-old twins have Pompe disease which affects organs such as the heart and lungs. They have been shielding at their home in the Highlands for 22 months along with their parents Lyndsay and Stephen Arthur - but have now been jabbed after the UK government said vulnerable primary school children aged five to 11 should be offered a low-dose Covid vaccine. The Arthurs believe the twins are the first under 12s in Scotland, and possibly the UK, to have the vaccine. "My wife is still buzzing," says Stephen.

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