Boris Johnson has urged people to keep Christmas celebrations “short and small” in order to halt the spread of coronavirus before the elderly are vaccinated.
The PM said it wold be “frankly inhuman” to try and ban Christmas but called on everyone to exercise extreme caution” and the “greatest possible personal responsibility”.
Johnson stopped short of changing UK-wide guidelines when he said: “A smaller Christmas is going to be a safer Christmas and a shorter Christmas is a safer Christmas.”
But Nicola Sturgeon and Welsh First Minister told people to obey tougher guidelines despite Johnson earlier claiming the four UK nations had “unanimous agreement” that three households will still be allowed to gather from December 23rd to 27th.
Sturgeon advised that a bubble of no more than two households should not meet up for more than a day and people should avoid staying overnight together.
First minister of Wales Mark Drakeford also said he would change the law so that people would stick to a limit of two, rather than three, households for a Christmas bubble.
Wales announced another firebreak lockdown on the 28th of December, immediately after the Christmas relaxation.
The agreement over the rules, and the flexibility for devolved nations, was trashed out in meetings between the UK government and devolved leaders over two days in the face of rising infection numbers.
Senior UK government sources claimed Sturgeon pressed for the relaxation to be shortened from five to three days and for only two households but was left with not enough support from Northern Ireland’s Arlene Forster or Drakeford and was opposed by the Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove.
But Scottish government sources insist the FM came to the meetings with no firm set of proposals and worked through the likely options with other leaders.
Sturgeon is also said to have pressed on travel from areas of high infection to those low risk areas and has now discouraged exiled Scots in England, particularly from tier 3 London, from travelling home for Christmas.
At the press conference the PM advised people planning to see families at Christmas to avoid travelling from “high prevalence” areas to those with lower coronavirus case rates and not to stay overnight if possible.
Chief medical officer Chris Whitty, who appeared alongside the PM, said: “Keep it small, keep it short, keep it local, and think of the vulnerable.”
Johnson also suggested people should delay seeing an elderly relative until they have been vaccinated, avoid going to crowded Boxing Day sales and not to gather in large groups indoors to celebrate New Year.
Whitty said frankly the modelling shows that relaxing the rules over Christmas will lead to an increase in deaths.
The chief medical officer for England told the Downing Street press conference: “Any kind of period where people come together in groups that otherwise wouldn’t meet leads to an increase in risks and that will lead to an increase in hospitalisations and deaths.
“That’s been consistently what we’ve said will happen, not just scientists but political leaders, but what we’ve tried to do is to then find out what are the things you can do to reduce the risk.”
