The four nations of the UK have, after some back and forth, today agreed to continue with the previous plan to relax coronavirus restrictions over the Christmas period - despite the fact a new variant of Covid has been detected in the UK, and amid fears the proposals could lead to an increase in cases.
The planned five-day Christmas lockdown easing allows three households to mix indoors between December 23-27.
However, on Tuesday the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal published a rare joint editorial calling for the “rash” decision to relax social distancing measures over the festive period to be scrapped.
They said that the government “is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives”.
The joint editorial warning, authored by HSJ editor Alastair McLellan and BMJ editor-in-chief Fiona Godlee, noted that when the government devised the Christmas plan “the Covid-19 demand on the NHS would be decreasing”.
“But it is not, it is rising, and the emergence of a new strain of the virus has introduced further potential jeopardy,” they added.
Speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing today, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed people can still 'bubble up' over the festive period, but also announced a raft of provisos - including one where she simply asked people not to do it if they can actually avoid it.
She said: "Firstly and unequivocally, the safest way to spend Christmas this year for you and for those you love is to stay within your own household and your own home and this is what you should do if at all possible.
"Any interaction you do have with another household should if at all possible be outdoors. If you do consider it essential to meet indoors with someone from another household you should limit both the duration and the numbers as much as possible...the five day relaxation is a window of opportunity during which you can meet. It is not a period that we think it is safe or sensible to get together for. You should see it as a maximum, not a target."
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