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The government will set what coronavirus restrictions might be in place by Christmas for “the next few days,” a cabinet minister told Sky News.
England’s second national blockade will end on December 2, and the government promised another system of tiered rules, depending on local infection rates, to replace it.
The UK government and the decentralized administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also in talks about what COVID-19 measurements must be in place during Christmas.
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COVID-19: Christmas plans to be announced in days
Recent reports have suggested that there could be a special easing of restrictions during the holiday period to allow families to reunite.
When asked by Sky News Kay Burley how many family members would be allowed to gather around a table for Christmas dinner, Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace said, “I have a family, I’d like to know that, and I think that is why in the next few days the government will establish those details. “
However, the minister also suggested that the British might have to wait until the end of the current blockade to learn more details about Christmas.
Wallace said that due to the lag between the introduction of lockdown measures and the slowdown in COVID-19 infections, ministers would know more about the impact of England’s new shutdown “as we get closer to December 2.”
“As we get closer to December 2, the government will raise all these different issues,” he added.
“We will enter a tier system.
“I think our goals are all the same, we would like to see our families at Christmas, we would like to mix as much as possible.
“But we also have to remember that this is an incredibly infectious and nasty disease and there are a lot of people, I’m afraid, still dying of COVID.”
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When pressed again on the rules on mixing different households that could be in effect for Christmas, Mr. Wallace said: “We can tell you that when we get closer to December 2nd.
“When we know at this stage how many people in the country are affected, what is the space in our hospitals, how the deployment of vaccines is going to be developed.
“We will know with much more certainty around December 2 than if you asked me today in mid-November.
“I can’t give you many of those answers, there is a lot of speculation.”
On Wednesday, scientists suggested lowering coronavirus restrictions each day during Christmas could require five days of stricter measurements to make up for it.
And speaking to Kay Burley of Sky News this morning, former Labor Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “I found out that as prime minister, you have to be two steps ahead of events.
“What you have to do, Boris Johnson, is say, ‘Look, if there’s any question about whether we can let people mingle over Christmas, we have to act now.
“We have to act with strict measures now. You have to be two steps ahead as PM, you cannot be behind the curve.
“And we tend to do things at the last minute when we should have acted earlier.”
Yesterday, the prime minister’s spokesman said that he has a “clear intention to allow families to spend Christmas together”, but stressed that “it will not be a normal one.”
