Newspaper headlines: 'We all need a boost' and PM 'backlash'

The Guardian says ministers have been told that further "stringent" national Covid measures will be needed on, or before, 18 December - to prevent Omicron infections overwhelming the NHS.

The paper says the warning came in leaked advice from the UK Health Security Agency to Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

The document says the rapid spread of the variant - first detected in South Africa - means that action to limit pressures on the health system might have to come earlier than intuition suggests.

The Times also reports on the prospect of fresh Covid rules. It says contacts of known cases of the Omicron variant are likely to have to test themselves every day. Scientific advisers also want people to prove that they are negative for coronavirus before going to public places.

But it says there is no public appetite for - indeed an abhorrence of - another lockdown. The paper says policy must be aimed at what it calls the hardcore of vaccine "refuseniks" who are most vulnerable to Omicron and make up the majority of those clogging up intensive care units.

The Daily Mail and the Daily Express both report on the importance scientists place on booster jabs to protect against the Omicron variant. The Mail says experts are urging Britons to get their top-up jabs to stave off a tsunami of infections and keep hospital admissions down.

The Express warns its readers that if even a small proportion of infections result in serious illness the deeply burdened NHS will be overwhelmed. It says it is "churlish and dangerous" to spurn the invitation to get jabbed.

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The Sun echoes the call for increased booster take-up under the headline "Three jabs is best shot". The tabloid's main editorial says advisers to the government are already raising the prospect of even tougher restrictions. It says if everyone gets boosted as soon as possible, and exercises caution, the "Plan C doom-mongers" can be told to "get knotted".

The Daily Telegraph says the prime minister is being urged to limit the impact of any further restrictions on children, by ensuring schools reopen fully after Christmas. It says a coalition of leading figures, including three former education ministers and the children's commissioner for England, have demanded schools stay open "come what may". They are calling for schools to be legally redefined as "essential infrastructure", putting them on a par with power stations, hospitals and food retailers.

According to the Daily Mirror, four out of five people are less likely to stick to Covid restrictions. This is as a result of revelations about parties at Downing Street last December. It cites a poll of nearly 1,200 people. A big majority say they might flout rules if Boris Johnson's officials are found to have broken them. In its leader column, the paper says what it describes as the prime minister's "reckless attitude" has damaged trust at a crucial moment in the fight against Covid.