Warning that relaxing Covid rules over Christmas 'will cost many lives' as health journals call on Government to scrap plans

They said that the Government “is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives”.

The warning, authored by HSJ editor Alastair McLellan and BMJ editor-in-chief Fiona Godlee said: “When Government devised the current plans to allow household mixing over Christmas it had assumed the Covid-19 demand on the NHS would be decreasing.

“But it is not, it is rising, and the emergence of a new strain of the virus has introduced further potential jeopardy.

“Members of the public can and should mitigate the impact of the third wave by being as careful as possible over the next few months. But many will see the lifting of restrictions over Christmas as permission to drop their guard.

“The Government was too slow to introduce restrictions in the spring and again in the autumn.

“It should now reverse its rash decision to allow household mixing and instead extend the tiers over the five-day Christmas period in order to bring numbers down in the advance of a likely third wave.”

The Government announced last month that three households could come together and form a “Christmas bubble” for a five-day period between December 23 and December 27.

Families were warned they could only join one Christmas bubble and that the households could not change.

The advice added: “When following these new rules, we must each continue to take personal responsibility to limit the spread of the virus and protect our loved ones, particularly if they are vulnerable.”

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