It comes as several other popular shows were cancelled briefly after their hosts tested positive.

Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC was cancelled for several days after the 48-year-old Meyers tweeted the news. “The bad news is, I tested positive for Covid (thanks, 2022!) the good news is, I feel fine (thanks vaccines and booster!)” he wrote.

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“We are cancelling the rest of the shows this week, so tune in next Monday to see what cool location we will try and pass off as a studio!!!”

The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, also on NBC, said he was “lucky” to only have experienced mild symptoms after testing positive for coronavirus on the first day of his Christmas holiday break. He also thanked medical staff and his producers for “taking testing protocols seriously”.

Whoopi Goldberg also missed the year’s first episode of The View due to a positive test, though co-host Joy Behar assured fans Goldberg’s symptoms had been “very, very mild”.

UK army sent to help relieve hospital staff shortages

The UK sent 200 armed forces personnel into hospitals in London to help relieve staff shortages due to a surge in the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The Ministry of Defence said it will provide 40 medics and 160 general-duty personnel for three weeks to ensure National Health Service hospitals in the capital are able to cope with soaring numbers of cases.

The emergency deployment comes as official data released Friday showed that more than 82,000 NHS staff in England were absent on January 2, almost half for Covid-related reasons. That included 4,765 workers in London who were self-isolating, up from 4,580 the previous week.

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With Boris Johnson relying on less rigorous measures than before to control the current surge of coronavirus, pressures are mounting on the country’s hospitals, which even without a pandemic are often stretched in winter. Nevertheless, the prime minister earlier this week said the UK can “ride out” the wave of infections without locking down the country again.

Adding to the strain on the NHS, admissions are rising: London hospitals have more than 4,000 Covid-19 patients, up from just over 1,000 at the start of December.

“Omicron means more patients to treat and fewer staff to treat them,” NHS national medical director Stephen Powis said in an emailed statement. “Covid cases in hospitals are the highest they’ve been since February last year – piling even more pressure on hard-working staff.”

Meanwhile, the UK’s health security agency has said booster shots are providing high levels of protection against hospitalisation and severe disease from Omicron among older people.

Latest data shows that around three months after the third shot, protection against hospitalisation among those 65 and older remains at about 90 per cent. With just two doses, protection against severe disease drops to about 70 per cent after three months and to 50 per cent after six months, the agency said on Friday.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the UK government’s advisory panel on inoculations, said the evidence showed there was no immediate need to introduce a second booster shot, or fourth dose, to the most vulnerable.

France’s Macron stands by his outburst about unvaccinated

French President Emmanuel Macron said he stood by his comments where he used a swear word to rile the five million French people who are still not vaccinated against Covid-19, adding it was his responsibility to sound the alarm given the Omicron threat.

The 44-year-old outspoken president, who is expected to seek re-election later this year, made headlines earlier this week by using the expletive “emmerder” – meaning to rile or to bug. He was talking about his strategy for pressuring vaccine refusers to get coronavirus jabs. His vulgar language dominated news broadcasts and provoked angry reactions from his political rivals.

Speaking in a news conference in Paris, Macron acknowledged the term may have upset some, but said he takes full responsibility for it.

“When some make from their freedom … a motto, not only do they put others’ lives at risk, but they are also curtailing others’ freedom. That I cannot accept,” he said in reference to unvaccinated people. “When you are a citizen you must agree to do your civic duty.”

France’s strategy is to “vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” he insisted, as the country reported this week Europe’s highest-ever single-day confirmed infection count. About 77 per cent of the population, including more than 91 per cent of adults, are fully vaccinated.

US Omicron-driven infections ‘not peaked yet’

The Omicron-driven surge in US Covid-19 cases has likely not topped out yet, the head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday as schools, hospitals and businesses struggle with rising caseloads.

“I don’t believe we’ve seen the peak yet here in the United States,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told NBC News’ Today programme.

Health officials have urged Americans not to get complacent in the face of the highly-transmissible variant, noting that even if it turns out to induce milder disease the fact that it is more contagious means a higher volume of cases, including more severe ones.

The United States reported 662,000 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the fourth highest daily US total ever recorded and just three days after a record of nearly one million cases was reported.

The seven-day average for new cases set a record for a 10th day in a row at 597,000 new infections, while Covid-19 hospitalisations reached nearly 123,000 and are approaching the record of over 132,000 set last year, the data showed.

Deaths, an indicator that lags behind hospitalisations, remain fairly steady at 1,400 a day, according to the tally. “We are still seeing those numbers rising,” Walensky said.

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Germany mulls tighter curbs

Germany is poised to tighten restrictions on access to restaurants and cafes in an effort to keep the rapidly spreading Omicron strain of the coronavirus in check.

In a video call on Friday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and regional leaders are expected to agree that people who are vaccinated or recovered will still have to provide a negative test. They’re seeking to tackle the latest surge in infections without resorting to sweeping lockdown measures like shuttering businesses and schools.