'Christmas possible' but be prepared for tougher restrictions before and after, government adviser warns

Video report by ITV News Health Editor Emily Morgan

A top scientific adviser said she thinks "some sort" of Christmas is possible, but may require enhanced measures either side of the festive period to allow people to be briefly reunited with their family's over the holidays.

Responding to a question about whether "some sort of Christmas is possible", Dr Susan Hopkins, the medical adviser to the Government’s Covid-19 response, said: "I think it is."

She warned that in order for this to be possible latest scientific advice suggested that “for every day that we release (measures) we will need two days of tighter restrictions”.

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The government has faced repeated questions for weeks about what will happen over Christmas.

Earlier this month, the government announced a "travel window" for students to allow anyone studying at university the opportunity to return home for Christmas.

The measures included increased testing support for universities utilising the latest test which provide results in an hour.

Dr Hopkins said: “We are very keen that we have a Christmas as close to normal as possible."

Asked by ITV News' Health Editor Emily Morgan what Christmas may look like, Dr Hopkins said: “This is a decision that will be made by Government and I know that they’re working hard to develop an outline of what that will look like and what the new tiers will look like post-December 2 and what Christmas will look like.

“So, coming into Christmas we need to be very careful about the number of contacts that we have, to reduce transmission before Christmas and get our cases as low as possible.

“Hopefully, the Government will make the decision that will allow us to have some mixing, but we will wait and see what that is.

“Then, I think, once we have got past the Christmas period if there has been a release and some socialisation we will all have to be very responsible and reduce those contacts again.”

Boris Johnson is keen to see Christmas celebrated as normally as possible. Credit: PA

The Prime Minister's official spokesman later told a Westminster briefing: "I think the PM has been clear in his desire to try and allow families to have Christmas together.

"We accept it won't be a normal Christmas but as I say the PM has been clear in his desire for families to be able to see each other.

"I think the point I would make is we are taking the tougher measures now to drive down the level of transmission, to drive down the number of patients admitted to hospital and then ultimately, those who end up on ICU and sadly die.

"We are taking these tougher measures now so that, as I say, the PM has given his clear intent to allow families to spend Christmas together."

Deputy chief scientific adviser Dame Angela McLean indicated the Sage advisory panel had been examining potential relaxation of measures over Christmas.

She told the Downing Street briefing: “We did send some advice in over the weekend.

“But we genuinely don’t know what decisions have been made.”

Asked whether household mixing could be allowed if there were other trade-offs, Dame Angela said: “What’s really important is we go into a festive week when we want to mix with our friends and our family with the number of infections in the community as low as possible.”

The press conference was aimed at providing an update on how the UK at this stage of the pandemic.

Through a series of slides, the government advisors showed that in most of the hard hit areas cases were levelling off before England went back into lockdown.

During the conference Dame Angela suggested evidence indicates that Tier 3 measures had a positive effect.

She said: “When I look at the North West and the North East, when I look at what’s happened with the ONS surveys there, I see interventions that have worked, I see epidemics that are flattening. There is some good news there.”

Dr Hopkins warned that increased excess mortality rates have been witnessed again in recent weeks.

She told the briefing: “This is clearly concerning and this is clearly one of the reasons why the national restrictions had to come into play.

There were 598 new deaths from coronavirus in the UK announced on Tuesday, the highest number since April 26.