People in Scotland are being asked to limit their socialising over Christmas to a maximum of three households.
Nicola Sturgeon has asked people to limit contacts before and after Christmas but it will be a request, not a law. She has not proposed limits on the size of household gatherings for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Boxing Day and has not asked people to cancel their plans.
She told the Scottish Parliament: "My key request today is this - before and immediately after Christmas, please minimise your social mixing with other households as much as you can. However, if you do plan on socialising - either at home or in indoor public places - we are asking that you limit the number of households represented in your group to a maximum of three. And make sure you test before you go.
"I know this is a tough thing to ask people to do, especially at this time of year. So I want to be clear why we are doing it. One of the things we have already learned about Omicron is that it has a very high attack rate.
Read about what Wales' health minister said just hours ago about Christmas plans in Wales.
"If just one person in a gathering is infectious, that person is likely to infect many more people in the group than was the case with the Delta variant. By reducing the numbers of people and households gathering together, we help limit the extent of its spread. Turning to Christmas Day specifically – or Christmas Eve, or Boxing Day, or whenever you have your main family celebration - we are not asking you to cancel or change your plans, and we are not proposing limits on the size of household gatherings.
"Places of worship will also remain open, with appropriate mitigations - but we will issue guidance to help you make Christmas safer. Reducing your contacts in advance of, and after Christmas, as I have just strongly advised, will help do this. Keeping your celebrations as small as your family circumstances allow is sensible too. Make sure everyone in your gathering is vaccinated and has done a test in advance. Keep rooms ventilated and follow strict hygiene rules. I know how much I am asking of everyone today, after a difficult and painful two years. I would not be doing so if I did not believe it necessary."
Shops, supermarkets and businesses across Scotland will have to re-introduce social distancing protections and limit the number of people in their stores under new guidance to stop the spread of Omicron.
Ms Sturgeon said the exact guidance would be issued later this week for different sectors but the regulations will see two metre distancing guidelines that limit the number of customers in shops returning to Scotland.
The First Minster said: “For example in retail, it will involve a return to the kind of protections in place at the start of the pandemic - for example measures to avoid crowding and bottlenecks. This will include physical distancing, measures to control the flow of customers and protective screens.”
She said money would be made available to help businesses but said UK Government would need to help. The Treasury has today said additional funding from the UK reserve will be made available to the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to progress their vaccine rollout and wider health response. The Treasury will set this amount of additional funding in the coming days and will keep it under review in the following weeks.
Wales' First Minister was asked about the plan in plenary. He said his cabinet will discuss a plan for Wales in cabinet this week.
He said people have followed the advice throughout the pandemic and "providing them with good advice is certainly part of the repertoire we have".
"We will always take a rounded set of indicators into account when taking our decisions that includes hospitalisations and mortality," he said.
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