People planning to celebrate the end of 2020 have been warned to avoid parties because "COVID loves a crowd" amid warnings of extra policing to stop mass gatherings.
A further 20 million people are under tighter restrictions after the government announced an extension of Tier 4 rules in England in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The new highly infectious variant of COVID-19 first discovered in the UK has now been detected in southern California, according to the state's governor.
At the end of 2020 Boris Johnson has finally conceded that he does indeed err on the side of optimism - over-optimism - when appearing in public, because he says he wants to be...