Revellers have hit the town full of festive spirit and their vaccine passports in hand on the first day of greater Covid restrictions on Wednesday.
Fears of spiralling Covid infection rates did not put off young party goers up and down the country as they enjoyed a fun night out at busy bars and pubs.
People heading to nightclubs needed to show that they were double jabbed with Covid passports, or have a negative test, in new rules under Boris Johnson ’s Plan B.
And many were clutching their phones showing they had the two doses as they headed around city centres.
People have also been told to wear face masks in more indoor locations and work from home where possible under new government guidelines to tackle the spike in Covid cases.
The Covid passport is now needed to get into nightclubs, indoor unseated venues with more than 500 people, unseated outdoor venues with more than 4,000 people and any venue with over 10,000 people.
So anyone who hasn’t had the two jabs or can’t prove a negative lateral flow test will be denied access by door staff.
Last weekend there were plenty of revellers out in towns and cities enjoying parties before Christmas ahead of the new rules.
But the government and scientists are warning people to be careful with who they mix socially to lessen the spread of the virus.
Professor Chris Whitty begged revellers to limit Christmas socialising to those who “really matter”, after the UK recorded its highest ever daily number of cases on Wednesday.
The chief medical officer warned a big rise in hospitalisations was “a nailed-on prospect” as the spread of the two variants amounted to “two epidemics on top of each other”.
There were an unprecedented 78,610 new infections on Wednesday and a 10% rise in hospitalisations. In some regions of England the doubling rate was under two days.
He said: “I think that what most people are doing is, and 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 go into the Christmas period.
In the strongest advice yet to people over Christmas, he said: "Don't mix with people you don't have to for either work or for family things that really matter to you, would be my general advice.
"But people have to make their own choices."
Prof Whitty admitted his own Christmas plans would likely be scaled back and said he was keeping some flexibility to help NHS colleagues.
He warned there was likely to be a "very sharp peak" with lots of NHS staff falling ill simultaneously, which could lead to staff shortages.
He said: "We may end up with quite substantial gaps in rotas at short notice."
NHS England's Dr Nikki Kanani also said she would also have a more low-key Christmas, doing far fewer things with her children in the run-up to Christmas.
She added: "But we will enjoy it together and we will enjoy it at home and we will enjoy it safely.
"As and when I need to work over the Christmas period I will be."
