Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Despite growing pressure from doctors and scientists to abandon the relax ation off covert restrictions over Christmas, the four nations of the United Kingdom have broadly agreed to stick to the plans, albeit with adjustments in Wales and to a lesser extent in Scotland.

  • With the number of infections rising sharply, all four nations have decided that people should be urged to show extreme caution over the five day period.

  • Well, the rules initially agreed for all of the UK between the 23rd and 27th of December.

  • Allow three households in the so called Christmas bubble to mix indoors on to stay overnight, but only if that is unavoidable.

  • Whales now wants to limit the mixing 22 households, but those households can be joined by a single person who lives alone.

  • Non essential shops will close on Christmas Eve, and all of whales will return to a form of lock down on the 28th off December.

  • Scotland is urging that any interaction with other households should ideally be outdoors on the contact should be limited to one day.

  • We'll be looking at the Christmas plans after today's revisions on how effective they're likely to be.

  • We'll start with this report by our political editor, Laura Ginsburg.

  • Even sorting the tree hasn't seen straightforward this year.

  • Politicians gave a promise we'd be able to gather together at Christmas a glimmer of light at a grim time.

  • But along with gifts, new concern about the virus is arriving in number 10.

  • It's a permission to see friends and family comes with stern new advice.

  • We're keeping the law's the same, but we all want to send the same message.

  • A smaller Christmas is going to be a safe for Christmas on a shorter Christmas is a safer Christmas.

  • You are still allowing a five day period to go ahead when people from all over the country will be able to get together.

  • Wouldn't it now be safer, clearer on perhaps braver to ditch the plans to relax the rules over Christmas?

  • We don't want to a zai se Teoh toe ban Christmas to cancel it.

  • I I I think that would be frankly inhuman.

  • What we are saying is that that that guidance, the three households and the five days that really should be regarded as a a za maximum.

  • But we're also relying on people's strong, strong sense of personal responsibility.

  • Leaders around the UK have tried to stick to the same approach.

  • There will be some limited extra freedom over the festive period in Scotland, where soon 80% of people will be living under tougher restrictions.

  • But there be no huge knees up for mother and daughter Mags and Louise Livingston Way can't really big family.

  • So normally we have a huge Christmas, a lords of games, lots of drinks, lots of party in or the kids.

  • But there she had.

  • Obviously, it's completely completely different for orders.

  • The Christmas relax ation of the rules will go ahead, but with a similar call for caution.

  • I have to say, I hate with every fiber of my being standing here, trying to regulate how you spend Christmas.

  • The reality is that this Christmas simply can't be normal.

  • But we have every reason every reason, to hope that next year's will be much more normal.

  • The pictures Bleeker in Wales, though, where the law is being tweaked so that only two, not three households, could get together in KAMARDEEN, plans are already changing.

  • We had three households together, but I think it's just gonna be us now, so the numbers are increasing as well.

  • Aren't they at the moment, So it is a worry.

  • Pressures intense on the health service.

  • With the spread of the disease, whales is going back to a limited lock down straight after Christmas.

  • Nobody wants to be ill at Christmas, and none of us want to give this deadly disease to our closest family or friends.

  • In Northern Ireland, winter illness conspired with cove it to fill hospitals to bursting last night, leaving ambulances queueing with patients inside for a long as 12 hours.

  • And that's even before any of the rules are eased up.

  • No surprise.

  • Politicians here are telling people to take care to be rescue aware at all times.

  • Remember the situations on activities that help the virus spread.

  • So keep your distance.

  • Stop your contacts with others outside your household or Christmas bubble.

  • The political decisions about Christmas were never designed to create a free for all, but the worsening pattern of the disease is forced to rebrand, if not a rethink, some families in Essex today we're worried about the consequences.

  • What's gonna happen is it's just going to spiral out of control again on Do you think they're wrong for doing it.

  • I think it's too late now.

  • I think people have made their plans and I think if they come in now, they change it.

  • People are just gonna do what they were planning to do.

  • Politicians must balance the dangers from the pandemic with the rial cost to so many other aspect of our lives this year.

  • What's meant to be a time of celebration is a time of riel.

  • Risk to Laura Ginsburg, BBC News, Westminster.

  • So, as we've been hearing, the approach in different parts of the UK has changed somewhat today.

  • So let's visit Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to find out more.

  • In a moment we'll hear from James Shore in Glasgow and Emma Vardy in Lisbon.

  • First, we're going to join Sean Lloyd in Cardiff.

  • Here in Wales, tighter restrictions are on their way.

  • Non essential shops and close contact services such as hairdressers together with fitness and leisure centers must close from the end of trading on Christmas Eve on all hospitality venues must shut from six o'clock on Christmas Day.

  • Now, the five day Christmas co vid window that had already been agreed remains in place.

  • But the Welsh government have told people here that they can only form a Christmas bubble of two households.

  • By law, although a single person can join them from the 28th of December, whales goes into lock down, which means people are expected to stay at home on public facilities will close.

  • There's no end in sight to these restrictions, but we are told they will be reviewed every three weeks.

  • Here in Scotland, the restrictions around Christmas are already a little tighter than they are in other parts of the country, so only eight adults from three household should meet endures.

  • That total doesn't include Children under 12, but the guidance today limits even mawr what people are supposed to do.

  • The Scottish government says that you should only meet on one of the five days of Christmas, the amount of time the number of people involved should be as small as possible on you should not stay in someone else's house unless it is absolutely necessary.

  • Also, travel between high risk and low risk areas should be avoided.

  • The location of us here in Northern Ireland means that people have been given an extra couple of days for traveling over the Christmas period.

  • So people told they may travel to and from Northern Ireland between the 22nd on the 28th off December.

  • A narrower window, though, for that Christmas bubbling, people are allowed to meet up with other households between the 20 that on the 27th of December.

  • And it's up to three households that are able to form a Christmas bubble.

  • Now for those heading out for some Christmas cheer, pubs and restaurants that serve food here are still allowed to stay open for now.

  • But there is still that limit on opening times, which here in Northern Ireland is 11 o'clock, but saying that there is still a lot of concern here about high numbers of cases.

  • Recent restrictions haven't had the kind of impact ministers have been hoping for.

  • So there's still the possibility or further restrictions on hospitality to come MM body there.

  • Ending that sequence in Northern Ireland's have looked at the latest government figures on coronavirus.

  • They show another 25,161 cases have been recorded in the latest 24 hour period, means the average number off new cases reported per day in the past week was 20,923 1662 people were admitted hospital on average each day.

  • Over the week to last Saturday, 612 deaths were reported for the past 24 hours.

  • That's people who died within 28 days off a positive co vid 19 test.

  • On average, in the past week, there were 422 deaths per day on the total number of UK.

  • Death so far is now 65,520.

  • So with me in the studio is our health editor, Hugh Pym, and who?

  • Let's go back to some of the reasoning on the anxiety is being expressed during the day by experts on the easing of these restrictions.

  • What can you tell us about the level of anxiety?

  • Well, you if you look at the detail of some of that data, we've just bean reporting.

  • We discovered that more than 18,000 patients with co vid 19 and now in UK hospitals.

  • That is the highest since April on getting close to the peak then of 21,000 and compares with just 800 in early September That's a stark illustration of the way pressure has been building up on the NHS.

  • And we heard from Professor Chris Witty, the UK government's chief medical adviser, at the briefing today, that any kind of mixing of people that wouldn't otherwise have happened will result in higher risk Mork cases, more people going to hospital and, sadly, some of them not surviving.

  • In other words, what will happen over Christmas?

  • The British Medical Association has said today.

  • Relaxing the rules will cost lives, and people must think very long and hard about what they do over Christmas that we should add that health officials also acknowledge the benefits off, some mixing in terms of people's well being and mental health and those who are lonely.

  • Tonight we've learned from Public Health Wales that 11,000 extra positive covert tests have Bean discovered in the system relating to the week ending on the 15th off December, in effect doubling the number that were known about now.

  • We've seen one or two problems in other parts of the UK, including England, of test results being delayed in coming forward, but it comes at a very sensitive time in Wales.

  • There've been calls for reassurance for the public that a grip has.

  • Bean got on this situation, but it may actually reinforce the Welsh government's argument for these tighter restrictions over Christmas.

  • Many thanks again for my health editor that.

Despite growing pressure from doctors and scientists to abandon the relax ation off covert restrictions over Christmas, the four nations of the United Kingdom have broadly agreed to stick to the plans, albeit with adjustments in Wales and to a lesser extent in Scotland.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it