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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Jasmine Allday

GMB's Dr Hilary warns people 'it's still not safe' to hug others just yet

Dr Hilary Jones says people should be "selective" when hugging their loved ones.

The GP and presenter appeared on Good Morning Britain as Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid discussed with Rustie Lee and Ellen Scott if we should be hugging people yet.

After the pair debated why they liked hugging others or weren't as keen, Richard asked Dr. Hilary if people were "ok to hug each other now", but the GP said it wasn't the case.

Speaking on the ITV show, he said: "No, unfortunately not. And Rustie Lee knows she'd be one of the first people I would hug if it was safe.

Dr Hilary says it's not safe to hug other people just yet (ITV)

"We all love a hug, I'm a hugger - I like a warm hug as much as the next person but look right now, it's not safe to do.

"We're still in a pandemic, we had a 1000 people die in the last week, we had 7000 hospitalisations up until October 26 and 40000 cases a day. When you're hugging somebody, you are in very close proximity, you're breathing in their air."

However, he said handshakes may be ok if you're continuing to use hand sanitiser.

Good Morning Britain's Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid were leading a debate on hugging people (ITV)

"It's not as bad as the continental kiss on either cheek because your face actually passes the exhaled air coming from your breathing," he added.

"What I'm saying, be selective with your hugging. Handshaking - if you're sanitising."

He went on to say it was more about "trust" when it came to choosing who to hug.

Speaking on the show, he said: "It's about trust. If the person you're going to hug is your close family - your mother, your children - that's a bit different because you know what they're doing, you know how they're behaving.

Dr Hilary explained that there might be ways to 'mitigate' the risk of hugging (ITV)

"The fact that Rustie Lee is hugging everyone means that I won't hug her."

She quickly interjected to say she hasn't been hugging everyone but asked at what stage people were going to be "sensible" and be "human" again and get back to hugging.

But Dr Hilary quickly replied to say: "The time to do that is when cases are much lower and when we're hugging people that we know are behaving in a social distancing and sensible way. We can mitigate the risk of a hug."

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