[News] Family Christmas get-togethers being considered

[vagabondl.]

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Ministers are looking at how to relax coronavirus restrictions so families can celebrate Christmas together.

 

The government's medical adviser on Covid, Susan Hopkins, said they were working on a plan and wanted Christmas to be "as close to normal as possible".

 

BBC health correspondent Nick Triggle said any rule change would be for a limited time, maybe just a few days.

 

Cabinet minister Alok Sharma said it was too early for "conclusions" but he wanted to see his family for Christmas.

It comes after the Sun reported that families may be able to mix indoors for five days from Christmas Eve.

All four UK nations - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - are trying to work out a common approach to Christmas so families spread across the UK can still meet up.

Our correspondent said any final decisions would not be made for a few weeks while health chiefs wait to see whether cases have started to come down during the lockdown in England.

But, he said, the advice was likely to urge families not to hold big gatherings and to travel by car, rather than public transport.

Scientific advice indicates that for every day that measures are relaxed, five days of tighter restrictions would be needed.

The government has recorded another 19,609 Covid cases in the UK and 529 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

England is expected to come out of its second national lockdown on 2 December and return to the tier system of localised restrictions, with household mixing banned indoors in the top two tiers.

 

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