Nicola Sturgeon has called for the re-introduction of the furlough scheme to allow for greater restrictions to tackle the spread of the omicron variant.

She said tougher measures may now be unavoidable in some sectors.

The First Minister has written to the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and said money is needed to fund stronger measures to limit the spread.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says 'stay at home as much as you can' in new omicron update

She said the NHS and the economy is at risk unless urgent action is taken.

Sturgeon said under UK funding rules the Scottish Government does not have the means necessary to put in place the measures the scale of the crisis requires and called on the Treasury to provide the financial support needed.

She said: "Restrictions on the operation of higher-risk settings, while of course undesirable, may now be unavoidable."

She said to Boris Johnson: "I am therefore appealing directly to you - and urgently - to re-establish UK-wide schemes for furlough, or alternatively establish a mechanism whereby the devolved administrations, subject of course to appropriate financial controls, can trigger such schemes and to ensure we have access to the financial support needed to deploy these schemes."

The First Minister said the NHS needed protection and efforts were needed to save lives.

She told  Johnson: "A lack of necessary and sufficient financial support must not be a barrier to us doing so."

Glasgow Times:

Johnson has resisted calls to impose tougher lockfown measures instaed relying on vacination boosters and testing to limit the spread.

He said: "If you want to go to an event or a party... the sensible thing to do is to get a test and to make sure that you're being cautious.

"But we're not saying that we want to cancel stuff, we're not locking stuff down, and the fastest route back to normality is to get boosted."