Cold turkey: Ministers face pressure to scrap ‘rash’ Christmas relaxation of rules
The government is facing mounting pressure to rethink its decision to relax coronavirus restrictions for five days over Christmas over fears it will lead to a third national lockdown.
In their first joint editorial for more than 100 years, the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal today said the government should U-turn on its “rash decision to allow household mixing and instead extend the tiers over the five-day Christmas period in order to bring the numbers down in the advance of a likely third wave”.
“We believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives”, they added. “If our political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action, they can no longer claim to be ‘protecting the NHS.”
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove will speak with the devolved nations later this afternoon over the decision.
Ministers are set to suspend the tier system across the whole of the UK between 23 and 27 December to allow “Christmas bubbles” of up to three households.
However, the health secretary’s announcement yesterday that a mutant coronavirus strain is behind a surge in cases in the southeast of England has sparked concern that increased socialising over Christmas will lead to a monumental spike in infections.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the government “haven’t got it right”, and urged ministers to rethink the decision.
“If they don’t change the rules, my message is we’re under no obligation to do all that’s allowed, there’s no reason you have to kiss or hug an older relation,” he added.
Steve Barclay, chief secretary to the Treasury, struck a more cautious note, telling the BBC that people should “act responsibly” and do the “minimum” of mixing over the Christmas period.
“We’ve got to trust the British people to act responsibly and do the minimum that is possible for them in their family situation”.
Number 10 has said it will to review the current plans, and that the UK will return to its tier system on 28 December.
It comes as around 11m people will join areas such as Manchester and Birmingham in Tier 3 at midnight tonight, as a surge in new infections sweeps across the southeast of England.
London, along with parts of Essex and Hertfordshire, will be placed in the highest level of restrictions from 0.01am tomorrow morning, as the government scrambles to contain a third wave of coronavirus.
Latest data from Public Health England showed there was an increase in coronavirus case rates in all 32 London boroughs in the seven days to 9 December.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Matt Hancock said: “Over the last few days, thanks to our world-class genomic capability in the UK, we have identified a new variant of coronavirus which may be associated with the faster spread in the south of England.”
“We’ve currently identified over 1,000 cases with this variant predominantly in the south of England. Although cases have been identified in nearly 60 different local authority areas and numbers are increasing rapidly,” he added.
The health secretary added that officials do not currently know “the extent” to which the new variant is behind the surge in London and surrounding regions.
“But no matter its cause we have to take swift and decisive action, which unfortunately is absolutely essential to control this deadly disease, while the vaccine has rolled out,” he said.