Edinburgh’s New Year Celebrations Scrapped After Omicron Surge

(Bloomberg) -- Edinburgh’s famous Hogmanay street celebrations at New Year were canceled again after a surge in cases of the omicron variant in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.

The government will also limit the number of fans at soccer matches to 500 from Dec. 26 for three weeks. More money will also be made available to support businesses after an increase in funding from the U.K. Treasury, albeit falling short of what Scotland would like to spend, she said.

The omicron variant of Covid-19 is currently ripping through the country and is more transmissible than previous strains. The priority is to deliver all booster vaccinations for adults and ensure that schools can reopen as normal after the winter break, Sturgeon said. 

“This statement feels distressingly similar to the one I gave last year,” she told the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday. “We are, though, in a better place than we were last year.”

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