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Large family gatherings may be banned at Christmas in England as the second wave of coronavirus could last until March, a senior minister warned.
Attorney General Robert Buckland said people should prepare now for the “realistic” prospect that large numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths continue, so a normal holiday period “will not be achievable.”
Your comments come as more areas prepare to enter Level 3 – the highest band of restrictions in England – and follow another 24,701 infections and 310 deaths across the UK.
In Scotland, people have been told to prepare for a ‘digital Christmas’
Buckland seemed to lay the groundwork for the rules that will apply during Christmas, explaining that “we all realize that this accompanies us throughout the winter season.”
The second coronavirus The spike “will last for a considerable period of time … until the clocks tick again in late March,” he told ITV’s Peston show.
He continued: “I think we all have to be realistic that if we see these trends continuing through December, then Christmas in its perhaps fullest sense will not be achievable for any of us this year.
“And maybe coming to terms with that now is probably the right approach to take.
Robert Buckland said extended family reunions ‘may not be possible’
“It doesn’t mean we can’t have Christmas.
“But perhaps those extended gatherings that attract people from different parts of the country (I have family in Wales, for example) may not be possible, given the information that is emerging.”
“It doesn’t mean we can’t have Christmas,” said the attorney general.
In Wales, the delegate government minister of health made a similar prediction on Sky News earlier this week.
Vaughan Gething said there needs to be a “national conversation about the rules that we will all have to follow” to make sure everyone can have “some company” during the holiday period.
He admitted that it would be “dislocating” for some.
And Scotland’s national clinical director, Professor Jason Leitch, said people should prepare for a “digital Christmas.”
Wales is in the middle of a 17-day ‘firebreak’
Government and Labor Scientific Advisors known as SAGE pushed by a brief lock to try to reduce the number of cases and deaths.
A Sky News poll conducted by YouGov on October 15 and 16 found that 67% of people were in favor of the idea, compared with 26% who did not know and 8% who did not know.
Professor Andrew Hayward, from the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and a member of SAGE, told Sky News on Wednesday: “It is more effective to act sooner, more lives are saved the sooner you act; I think this must be long before Christmas and very soon.”
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resisted such a move, saying local measures are more effective and fairer in regions where the prevalence of the virus is lowest.
Boris Johnson has resisted requests for a circuit breaker
“We see this as a national crisis that we are going to reverse,” he said in the Prime Minister’s Questions earlier this month.
“I do not rule out anything, of course, in the fight against the virus.
“But we will do it with the local and regional approach that can reduce and reduce the virus.”
In Wales, current residents in the midst of a 17-day “firewall” lockdown in an attempt to regain control of the virus.
