Britain has announced Tuesday that it will provide additional support of 1 billion pounds (1.3 billion USD) to businesses affected by Omicron variant coronavirus. This is in response to the crisis that is decimating the country’s tourism sector as well as other industries.

Rishi Sunak, Finance Minister, said that he believed the measures would benefit hundreds of thousands businesses. However, he said that he will “respond proportionately” to the government’s attempts to slow Omicron. This would be a bigger economic hit.

The support package announced Tuesday will allow hospitality and leisure companies in England to receive grants up to 6,000 Pounds per premises. This amounts almost 700,000 pounds.

According to the finance ministry, these grants are equivalent to what was given to hospitality companies when they closed completely earlier in this year.

Funds to assist cultural organizations would be increased to 30 million Pounds. 100 Million Pounds would go to English local authorities to help with business support and 150,000,000 Pounds to the governments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Also, the ministry stated that it will cover costs of COVID-related sick leave for employees working for smaller and medium-sized companies in the United Kingdom.   

Britain borrowed nearly 300 billion pounds to offset economic losses from the coronavirus outbreak and government lockdowns.

Sunak replied, “Ofcourse I will always respond appropriately and proportionately to the situation we face. People can have confidence that that,” when Sunak was asked by a reporter whether there is more support for businesses should further restrictions be placed.

Sunak was asked about the possibility of additional restrictions. He said that the future path wasn’t clear.

He stated that the prime minister had said, “We’re looking at the data hourly, day by day. We’re keeping the situation under constant scrutiny but we can’t rule out anything.”

Johnson indicated Monday that Johnson was considering all options to manage Omicron and cautioned further restriction may be required.

UKHospitality released Monday’s figures, showing a 40% drop in takes during the weekend. This is followed by a deep sense of doom for the New Year.   

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls stated that the generous package builds on existing support measures and provides an emergency cash injection to businesses which have lost their most important trading periods.