By Tony O’Riley-
With ministers in the Uk seriously considering allowing households to meet over a period covering Christmas Eve right through to Bank Holiday Monday, plans to counterbalance what was once a basic freedom, is being prepared for January.
The British government is considering relaxing restrictions for Christmas. Boris Johnson wants to see the British people enjoy Xmas, and alongside other ministers, are working towards allowing household mixing with some conditions. The other side is that restrictions might be tighter in January.
Medical doctor and government adviser, Dr Susan Hopkins, hinted at this likely scenario when she spoke of two days of tighter restrictions for every day of relaxed measures. It is the trade off likely to be presented by Westminster, if and when the Christmas relaxed measures are passed.
Under current plans, once the lockdown ends on December 2, the three-tier local lockdown system will return to the country, which various regions under different tiers. Some insiders claim there is a plan to put all parts of the Uk under tier 3, but no official confirmation has been made about this.
At a Downing Street briefing on Wednesday, government medical adviser Dr Susan Hopkins(pictured) suggested the government is planning to allow Britons a “Christmas as close to normal as possible”.
“Hopefully the government will make the decision that will allow us to have some mixing, but we will wait and see what that is,” she said.
But she said that “for every day we release [measures] we will need two days of tighter restrictions” , suggesting that the cost of socialising at Christmas would be tighter restrictions in January. Dr.Hopkins was addressing her estimation of increased infections in January if Christmas household mixing is allowed.
There appears to be the challenge to balance the need for the public to exercise their freedom in enjoying Christmas, and the potential consequence from doing that. The critical issue is how much the r rate could rise in that period, and the potential number of deaths that could result from that.
Measuring the number of deaths that could result from limited Christmas mixing, presents its own challenges.
It would require taking into account all the factors that caused the death of individual patients in that period, including their level of health condition up until then.
Caution
Business Secretary Alok Sharma expressed caution about the plans when the question was put to her.
He told the BBC today, he said: “I want to have my mum and dad around, I want to have members of my family around that Christmas table.
“I just think it’s too early to be reaching any conclusions on that. What none of us knows right now is what the infection rate is going to be in different parts of the country.”
If the plans are put in place, mixing households that choose to link up will be unlikely to be able to mix with others outside that grouping during the celebrations.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We are looking at ways to ensure that people can spend time with close family over Christmas at the end of what has been an incredibly difficult year.”