Britain could ease its stringent COVID-19 lockdown to allow families to gather for Christmas because there are signs that coronavirus cases are starting to flatten as a result of current lockdowns, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Friday.
Hancock said that he was working with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for a UK-wide approach to rules for Christmas.
He said that a ‘four-nation’ approach is being worked on, adding: “We want to have a set of rules that are UK wide, not least because so many people travel between different parts of the UK. And so we’re working with the devolved authorities to try to get an agreed set of rules for Christmas.”
“There are encouraging signs that the number of cases is starting to flatten, and that the lockdown that we brought in, earlier this month, is working,” Hancock told Sky News.
“Christmas is a special time of year and we’ve had such a difficult year in 2020 – it has been such a terrible year and having some hope, some joy at Christmas, I know that would be welcomed by so many people.
But he said ” there will have to be rules in place, we just hope to be able to get something of the yearning people have to see their loved ones at Christmas and to have some of that joy that Christmas brings. But it has to be careful.”
The Health Secretary also said that National Health Service (NHS) would be supported with whatever resources it required for a successful COVID-19 vaccine roll-out programme.
“I’ve made clear to the NHS that whatever resources they need to get this right,” he told BBC radio, adding that -70 degree Celsius freezers needed to store Pfizer’s PFE.N vaccine candidate were already in place.I’m absolutely confident that … the NHS will deliver this roll out.”
