The Prime Minister is not expected to announce further restrictions to control the Omicron variant in England after being briefed on the impact Christmas had on Covid infections and hospital pressures.

In what was described as an internal Government meeting, Boris Johnson was scheduled on Monday to be talked through the latest data by chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser.

The PA news agency understands no announcement is expected to come out of the meeting, potentially leaving England at odds with other parts of the UK, where post-Christmas restrictions have been deployed.

Conservative MPs have urged caution in going beyond Plan B in England, with veteran Tory Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown calling for a “wait-and-see” approach to the impact of infections on hospital admissions.

The latest UK infection data currently in the public domain dates back to Christmas Eve, when more than 122,000 people tested positive in the previous 24 hours, while hospital data on the Government dashboard has not been updated since December 20.

Sir Geoffrey said he hoped the Prime Minister would be “very cautious before introducing further measures” as he pushed for people to be able to “make their own decisions” when it came to taking precautions against infection.

In a sign the population could be curbing its own behaviour after Christmas, retail bosses said they had experienced a “muted start” to the post-Christmas sales, with a high street expert suggesting London’s West End experienced a drop of almost half of pre-pandemic footfall levels on Boxing Day.