Rishi Sunak is set to hold crisis talks with pub and restaurant bosses who have seen takings plummet amid Omicron fears.

The Chancellor faces pressure to produce a rescue package for the hospitality sector as Christmas festivities have been scaled back after the rapid growth in cases of the coronavirus variant.

The latest daily figures showed almost 90,000 Covid-19 cases were recorded as of 9am on Thursday, the highest figure so far in the pandemic.

The British Beer and Pub Association said an estimated three million Christmas bookings had been cancelled in the past week.

Premises are forecast to sell 37 million fewer pints and lose out on £297 million in trade across the festive period compared to 2019.

'Plan B' and Omicron hits hospitality

The combination of the Plan B restrictions and Prof Whitty’s comments meant “consumer confidence has been hugely undermined”, chief executive Emma McClarkin said.

In a letter to Mr Sunak she said a failure to offer further support “risks mass closures in an industry which remains on a knife-edge after a brutal previous 21 months”.

Trade body UKHospitality’s boss Kate Nicholls and pub chiefs have made a plea for business rates relief and VAT discounts to be extended, warning that the sector has been knocked harder than expected by the new restrictions.

Ms Nicholls said hospitality sales have already plunged by more than a third over the past 10 days with £2 billion of trade already lost in December.

Northwich Guardian: Photo via PA Graphics.Photo via PA Graphics.

A health chief warned there could be a “major problem” as the latest wave of Omicron hits NHS staff.

But Boris Johnson insisted that the Plan B measures he has imposed in England are “sensible” and “proportionate” while the booster jab campaign proceeds.

In Wales, tougher rules will be imposed after Christmas with nightclubs ordered to close from December 27 and a return to two-metre social distancing rule in offices.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has also warned that “restrictions on the operation of higher-risk settings, while of course undesirable, may now be unavoidable”.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said a combination of increasing hospital cases and staff shortages could cause difficulties across the health service.

Asked whether a lockdown was inevitable, he said: “It’s very difficult to tell at this point.”

He told BBC’s Question Time: “The bit that is really going to come up and give us a major problem is the number of staff that we’re going to have off because of the fact that they have caught Covid.”

The infection rate will mean “significant numbers of our staff are actually not going the able to be at work”.

While the NHS had been able to increase capacity to deal with previous Covid-19 waves, it was already “the busiest we have ever been at this time of year” and dealing with a surge of cases could be “really quite difficult”.