Christmas caution over family gatherings required – The Yorkshire Post says

This is new territory – never in living memory has a government been faced with a pandemic as pernicious as Covid-19 – and Boris Johnson and his team deserve credit for working with the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to come up with a UK-wide plan that can be clearly communicated and, where necessary, enforced by the police.

However it would also be prudent for the PM to play down expectations before the nation gets carried away prematurely – he needs to keep stressing that this Christmas ‘ceasefire’ is conditional on Covid outbreaks being kept in check by the public’s forbearance over the current lockdown and the imposition of an unproven new Tier system of restrictions from next week.

It’s also imperative that Mr Johnson, and others, stress that gatherings of up to three households for as many as five days are the maximum permitted and, where possible, families should stick to their current arrangements in order to minimise any inadvertent spread of Covid-19.

Given what the country has already sacrificed, and with potential vaccines in the pipeline, now is not the time to put the public’s wider health at undue risk – Christmas is, traditionally, a time of goodwill towards others and the best gift of all this year is everyone accepting this year’s unique circumstances and thinking of others as they prepare their own festive events. After all, it is in the interests of all to do so and assist the Government, and others, at this critical time. For, the sooner Covid is suppressed, the quicker Britain can be return to some normality.

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