Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said he "cannot rule out closing schools again" as the UK tackle a rise in Omicron variant Covid cases.

Mr Javid was speaking on LBC on Monday morning after Boris Johnson said the UK is facing a “tidal wave of Omicron” which is likely to cause “very many deaths”.

In a pre-recorded address to the nation on Sunday evening, said Britain “must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection” as he set a new deadline of jabbing everyone over 18 by the new year.

The announcement comes as the UK Covid alert level was raised to Level 4, up from Level 3, following a rapid increase in the number of Omicron cases being recorded.

The recommendation was made to ministers by the country’s four chief medical officers and NHS England’s national medical director following advice from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

Sajid Javid can’t guarantee schools will not close again due to Covid

Asked on LBC whether this remained a possibility, Mr Javid said: “Well, I don’t want to see that or any of these kinds of measures. I’m just going to focus on everything else we need to be doing, especially the booster programme.”

He added: “I’d say this… if you are asking me for guarantees, I will just say – as the Health Secretary, of course, I’m not the Education Secretary – as the Health Secretary, that there are, when it comes to our fight against this pandemic, there are no guarantees.

“But what we do know that works is, in this case, a booster shot of the vaccine.”