Covid: Avoid ‘dip under the mistletoe’ this Christmas, says British minister | Corona Virus

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Britons should avoid “dip under the mistletoe” at Christmas this year, according to a government minister, with a prominent scientist saying people can enjoy Christmas if they take “reasonable” precautions.

“We should all try to enjoy Christmas ahead of us,” Minister of Work and Pensions Therese Coffey told ITV’s Peston programme, adding, “For what it’s worth, I don’t think there should be much stumbling under the mistletoe.”

She added, “I don’t need to do things like that. But I think we should all try to enjoy Christmas ahead, which is why we are working so hard to spread as many vaccines as possible.”

Covey said kissing with “people you don’t already know should be avoided.”

She later tweeted: “Watch all interviewees…don’t take people you don’t know…Government is working exceptionally hard with the NHS and the Punch Army to get boosters in the arms so we can all have proper Christmas knees.”

Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Immunization and Immunization, said vaccines could do “a lot of the heavy lifting” amid concerns about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

But he acknowledged there were “a lot of doubts” about the new strain, and that its full effect would not be known “for a few weeks”.

Suggesting measures such as social distancing and mask wearing, he told Sky News: “If people are sane, I see no reason why all of us shouldn’t enjoy Christmas again, unless this alternative takes a real turn for the worse.”

Science Secretary George Freeman also asked people to “exercise some common sense” about who they accepted and where, adding to LBC that it was “up to all of us” to help control the spread of the Omicron variant and avoid the possibilities that tighter restrictions would need to be addressed.

He also said that his team will almost meet for Christmas drinks via Zoom, but that it “depends a little on the nature of the business” whether it is advisable to take the same step.

Advised whether companies should do the same, Freeman said that a small company with six or so employees who would normally work in an office getting together for a drink “isn’t a big step in taking the risk.” But he cautioned that companies whose annual festive gathering might have hundreds of attendees, including some travelers from abroad, “may wonder does that make sense?”.

When asked if there was a Downing Street party last December in defiance of Covid rules, Freeman said he had “no idea” because he had not been invited – but added: “I checked and told those who were following the guidance.”

Earlier, the health minister, Sajid Javid, said people should continue to follow the government’s advice despite warnings from some health officials about the dangers of socialization.

The government has tightened rules around PCR tests for travelers returning to the UK and has introduced quarantine rules for people from high-risk countries, as well as bringing back face coverings in stores and on public transport in England.

It has also accelerated its Covid booster program to try to slow the spread of the new variant.

Professor Robert West, a member of the Scientific Group on Behaviours, urged people to make “flexible” plans for the holiday period.

He told Sky News that he personally would not make plans that “include gatherings that cannot be changed”.

West said, “In other words, stay flexible. Make your plans, by all means, as I am, but do it in a way that means the worst has to come to the worst, and we have to make sure that people stay as far away from each other as possible as possible, and then still You can enjoy your vacation.”

Ministers got the Covid-19 vaccines to release a potential booster in the next two years.

While there is uncertainty about the need for future campaigns, the government has announced that it has signed deals for 114 million strikes from Moderna and Pfizer that will be delivered in 2022 and 2023.

Javid said the deals, which included an additional 60 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine and an additional 54 million doses of Pfizer/BioN Tech, would prove the country’s vaccine program into the future.

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