RE: Lots of potential from here29 Nov 2021 13:38
The first two cases of the Omicron variant in the UK were identified in Brentwood, Essex, and Nottingham on 27 November.
People in Essex are now being told to get tested if they went to a KFC restaurant in Brentwood High Street on 19 November or a nearby church on 21 November.
People connected to Larchwood Primary School are also being urged to get tested for the virus.
This contact tracing advice suggests the Omicron cases could have been contracted earlier than when South Africa first alerted the world to the variant on 23 November.
Sky News people and politics correspondent Nick Martin says this could be down to a lack of testing capacity for the new variant.
He says that "only half" of the lighthouse testing facilities in the UK are "able to immediately" spot it.
"It's not for another five to seven days - as it works through the scientific process- that the variant was spotted," he adds.
"And that could explain why there's been such a delay in discovering this variant."
He says this has huge implications – as it could mean "future tests could be missed by up to a week" and therefore "impact on the government being able to make real-time decisions" about restrictions.