Professor Chris Whitty is encouraging Brits to limit their social interactions this Christmas to fight the spread of coronavirus.
That is despite an earlier message from Prime Minister Boris Johnson telling families to continue with their Christmas plans and parties.
Prof Whitty was talking as Mr Johnson addressed the nation live from Downing Street as the coronavirus booster vaccine roll-out continues across England to fight the Omicron variant.
The chief medical officer said people needed to “prioritise what matters” in the run-up to Christmas and therefore “deprioritise other things”.
He said you “don’t need a medical degree to realise that is a sensible thing to do with an incredibly infectious virus”.
He told the nation to prioritise the social interactions that matter, especially in the run-up to Christmas.
Prof Whitty said: “I think that what most people are doing is, and I would think this seems very sensible, is prioritising the social interactions that really matter to them and, to protect those ones, de-prioritising ones that matter much less to them.
“I think that’s going to become increasingly important as we, for example, go into the Christmas period.”
He said he would “strongly encourage” people to take tests before visiting vulnerable people and to meet in areas of good ventilation or outdoors if possible.
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