Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced that the country’s clubs will remain closed until at least 24th January, in an attempt to help curb the spread of the Omicron variant.

Yesterday’s announcement confirmed that restrictions on large outdoor events would be lifted from Monday, while restrictions on indoor venues will remain in place for at least another week after that date.

A British DJ has avoided prosecution after triggering New Zealand's first Omicron scare.

Drum & bass DJ Dimension, aka Robert Etheridge, arrived in the country on 16th December. He spent seven days in quarantine before breaking home isolation rules before receiving a negative day-nine test. Etheridge later tested positive for Omicron - thought to be the first community exposure of the highly contagious variant in the country - before canceling a slot at Rhythm & Alps festival on South Island resort Wānaka.

France has announced tighter COVID-19 restrictions amid an ongoing surge in cases of the Omicron variant in the country.

Under new measures, nightclubs will remain closed until further notice, having initially been closed for four weeks earlier this month. Outdoor public gatherings of more than 5,000 people are also banned in the nation until further notice. Indoor seated gatherings will be limited to 2,000 people.

Iconic English songwriter, singer, and musician Kate Bush has said UK National Health Service (NHS) staff deserve a fair pay rise, in a rare public message. 

Fresh UK Government support for music venues has been described as "woefully inadequate". 

Germany, Portugal and Northern Ireland are among the countries announcing new COVID-19 restrictions in the face of rising cases and the threat posed by the highly-transmissible omicron variant. 

A group of Berlin clubs and promoters have come together to launch legal proceedings against the city's latest indoor dancing ban.

The group of 11 clubs and promoters, which includes KitKatClub, Matrix, Club OST, Der Weiße Hase, among others, as well as DJ Paul van Dyk, submitted an appeal against the ban to Berlin's administrative court last week, with support from lawyer Niko Härting.

Nightclubs in Wales are set to close as COVID-19 infection rates continue to increase across the United Kingdom. 

The country is currently experiencing a rapid rise in cases as a result of the new highly-transmissible Omicron variant. Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford made the announcement on Thursday 16th December, with venues set to be shuttered from 27th December in a bid to curb the spread of the virus. Currently, there are no confirmed plans for similar closures in England or Scotland. 

COVID-19's genetic code has been transformed into a series of ambient tracks, which have then been made available to buy as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. 

Viromusic, the organisation behind the project, created the tunes using only the genetic sequence inside the coronavirus. A statement from the team explained that this required "a technique called DNA Sonification", meaning "the melody in the songs is derived entirely from the viral sequence". 

Mike Skinner has revealed that all of The Streets' gigs for 2022 have been cancelled.

Having returned to playing live over the summer, amid the release of the single 'Who's Got The Bag', Skinner said that any plans to continue to perform live into the new year would no longer go ahead, following "the worst week of the worst year" of his life.