As you may know, the government recently announced that they will be loosening coronavirus restrictions in the UK around Christmas, to allow families to see eachother and bring a bit of normality to this crazy year.
However, more recently, some ministers and health care professionals have become concerned that the coming relaxation of rules will cause a spike in cases that will come back to bite us.
Some members of parliament, such as the Labour Party leader, have had a change of heart over the once safe and overdue loosening of restrictions, and have advised the government to not go forward with the change. However, it has been announced today that despite the pushing from other ministers and health professionals, restrictions will still be loosened around christmas time.
Speaking about the change, which will allow households to mix (under certain conditions) between the 23rd and 27th of this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “As of today, just this morning, there is unanimous agreement across all the UK government and devolved administrations that we should proceed in principle with the existing regulations because we don’t want to criminalise people’s long-made plans.
“We do think it’s vital that people exercise a high degree of personal responsibility, especially when they come into contact with elderly people.”
Wales have taken a somewhat “smart” approach to the month ahead, with a national lockdown planned for the 28th of December, just a day after the restrictions are tightened again. They are afraid that the mixing of households will cause such a spike in cases, and want to correct this.
But, not all is negative in the future, as over 130,000 have received the coronavirus vaccine as of today, and the roll out seems to be going well, with people continuing to respond well to the vaccine.
Only time will tell if these decisions are a mistake as some say they are, but we must remember that the virus is still there, even if the restrictions aren’t, so it’s increasingly important to be careful and to try and remain safe.
