The four nations of the UK will not criminalise people who made plans based on the five-day relaxation of restrictions announced in November the Prime Minister has announced.
Addressing Downing Street Press Conference he said that when we say three household can meet on five days, “I want to stress that these are maximums, not targets to aim at.”
He also advised against travel from high tier areas in lower tiers and said that if possible, people should avoid staying away from home overnight, may want to avoid seeing elderly relatives until they have been vaccinated,.and avoid the Boxing Day sales.
However he said it would be inhuman” to ban Christmas and would go against the instincts of the country.
Earlier Johnson said he would not outlaw Christmas gatherings, resisting pressure from some doctors to ban festive family get-togethers.
He told the House of Commons during Prime Minister’s Questions thatit was right to “stress the importance of people taking care this Christmas”, particularly due to the risk of asymptomatic transmission of coronavirus.
“We should exercise extreme caution in the way we celebrate Christmas.We can celebrate it sensibly but we have to be extremely cautious in the way we behave.”
In Scotland,Nicola Sturgeon has urged people to stay at home during Christmas and only mix outdoors.She added that those people forming a Christmas bubble should only meet up with people on one day, if possible, and not stay overnight “unless it is unavoidable”.
Meanwhile in Wales,fresh lockdown measures are to be imposed.All non-essential shops, plus leisure and fitness centres and close-contact services, will shut at the end of trading on Thursday 24 December.
Hospitality premises, including pubs and restaurants, will close from 6pm on Christmas Day.
And on December 28, at the end of the five day Christmas period, tighter restrictions for household mixing, staying-at-home, holiday accommodation and travel will apply
Nearly 140,000 people in the United Kingdom have received their first COVID-19 shots in the first week of roll-out of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the minister in charge of the programme has said .
“A really good start to the vaccination program. It’s been 7 days and we have done: England: 108,000, Wales: 7,897, Northern Ireland: 4,000, Scotland: 18,000. U.K Total 137,897,” Nadhim Zahawi said in a tweet.
