Premier League players and staff must take a lateral flow test every time they want to enter their club’s training ground as the competition steps up its efforts to tackle the threat posed by the Omicron variant of Covid -19.

And from today, fans will need to show proof of double vaccination or a negative test to attend sporting events with crowds of more than 10,000 in England. This includes Premier League matches.

Top-flight clubs agreed tougher measures within a week when two Premier League matches – Tottenham against Brighton and Brentford against Manchester United – were postponed due to positive Covid cases in their squads.

Anyone wishing to enter a Premier League training ground will need to pass a lateral flow test outside. In addition to the daily tests to access the training grounds, players and staff will now have a PCR test at least twice a week, which was the case last season, before it moved to lateral flows at the summer.

The moves come as the highly transmissible variant of Omicron becomes the dominant strain of coronavirus in the UK.