People Are Urged To Limit Contact With Others Before Seeing Relatives At Christmas
3 min read
People should aim and isolate before seeing elderly or vulnerable relatives at Christmas to try and limit the spread of coronavirus, Matt Hancock has suggested.
The health secretary came under pressure to justify the rationale behind the five day period of relaxed rules over Christmas after a steep rise in coronavirus cases that has led London into Tier 3 restrictions from Wednesday.
Three households will be able to mix between December 23 and December 27 in a significant loosening of rules that do not currently allow households to mix indoors in most of the country.
After a barage of questions on whether this should be reviewed and if people should isolate before Christmas, Hancock eventually said: "We all know that the best thing to do is to make sure that you don't have coronavirus, and the best thing you can do if you want to see elderly relatives at Christmas is to be extremely careful now about who you see and that's the way to see loved ones, in a socially distanced way, at Christmas but do so in a way that is safe."
But Mr Hancock seemed reluctant to give the public direct instructions for how they should behave in the run up to the festive break.
Before conceeding that a period of limited contact with others could be sensible, he said people should be cautious and careful about who they see, adding: "It is our personal responsibility to make sure that we follow that.”
Respondong to a question by PoliticsHome, he said teenagers in London who have been at schools where there is a high number of coronavirus cases need to be "really careful" and "take seriously" the rise in figures before seeing relatives.
Professor Chris Whitty, the government's chief medical officer, said: "On Christmas, I think all of us know that Christmas is a period of greater risk.
"And the festive season more generally is a period of greater risk.
He added: "The point of this (relaxation of rules) is for, under certain circumstances, families who wish to, to get together, but they really have to be very, very careful.
"And in particular, incredibly careful if they're around people who are vulnerable, who are at very high risk of this virus.
"In the medium term, the vaccine is going to give us a way out, but it is not going to give us a way out between now and Christmas or indeed for the two months following that."
He sidestepped a question from Sky News' Sam Coates on whether there were any circumstances in which the Christmas relaxation of Covid rules would be re-assessed.
He said: "Our messages around Christmas are really clear. We understand why people want to see their loved ones, especially at this time of year, especially after this year.
"But it must be done in a way that is careful and responsible, and I think people understand that too."
There has been a 14 percent increase in coronavirus cases across the UK in the last week. The average number of new cases reported each day is 18,023 - up on last week - and there are 16,531 patients in hospital with the disease, which is another increase.
On average there have been 420 deaths each day in the last week.
Sharp rises have been seen in London, Kent, Essex, South Wales and East and South East of England. The doubling time is just seven days in some areas and there are rising rates in the over 60s.
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