‘Too early to say’ how Christmas will be celebrated, says George Eustice

George Eustice has said that a second wave of COVID-19 infections is a “very difficult situation to control completely”

Mr Eustice has recently said that it is “too early to say” how people will be able to celebrate Christmas this year, with strict COVID-19 rules in place across large parts of the UK.

On Tuesday, COVID-19 deaths in the UK hit their highest level for five months when 367 new fatalities linked to the novel coronavirus and nearly 23,000 more cases were recorded.

The government has responded to the second wave of infections with a three-tiered system of local lockdowns in England, with many people now banned from socialising with other households either indoors or outdoors.

This comes after over 50 Northern Tory MPs from “red wall” seats are demanding a “roadmap out of lockdown” from the Prime Minister and a post-COVID economic recovery plan for areas in the north of England.

Asked how people in the UK might be able to celebrate Christmas in less than two months’ time, Environment Secretary George Eustice has said that:

“The prime minister has been very clear, as we all are, that we want people to celebrate Christmas in a way that is as close to normal as possible.”

“But it is too early to be able to say exactly what the situation will be come Christmas, and exactly what different parts of the country will or will not be able to do.

“Obviously checking the spread of this virus is paramount, but alongside that we want people to live their lives as close to normal as possible, including at Christmas which is an incredibly important time for families.”

Mayor for Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, whose region is in Tier 3 restrictions, warned that “time is running out” for a national “circuit break” lockdown.

He called on ministers not to “dig in” over their tiered system and instead be “open-minded about what is going to deliver the results, in terms of the drop in cases, and do least harm to the economy”.

This comes after Dr Tristan Cope, the medical director at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal, Aintree and Broadgreen hospitals, said a “huge strain” had been placed on hospital staff in Liverpool and added that numbers were still rising.

“In the disucssions that we had with the government, we heard the chief medical officer, the deputy chief medical officer, the chief scientific adviser all say that they don’t think the tier system and the small number of closures that have been brought about are going to actually deliver the results in terms of the drop in cases,” Mr Burnham said.

“So we were hearing from the experts that the government actually is heading out down the wrong path, and you could go from Tier 3 to Tier 4 to Tier 5 and it would seem that, they fear, that isn’t going to be enough.”