Boris Johnson has been urged to outline his post-Christmas Covid strategy as a health minister warned there is “uncertainty” around people making New Year’s Eve plans.
The prime minister has reassured people that no further restrictions will be introduced before December 25th given there is not enough evidence on the severity of the Omicron variant and hospital admission to justify stricter measures.
If anything the rules have been relaxed as the Government has announced the self-isolation period for fully vaccinated people who have coronavirus has been cut to a week, which will give more people the chance to spend time with loved ones over Christmas.
From Wednesday, those in England who receive negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven of their self-isolation period, and are vaccinated, will no longer have to self-isolate for the full 10 days.
It comes as Jacob Rees-Mogg has urged the government to trust people to do the right thing rather than impose restrictions.
Caution
With the situation constantly being reviewed, Conservative frontbencher Gillian Keegan has urged caution over the days ahead.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth told Sky News: “People are anticipating that some form of restrictions will come in post-Christmas, and I think we just need to give people certainty.
“People need to know where they stand. Businesses have got to make decisions about what stock to get in in the run-up to new year’s eve, so I think it would be reasonable for the Government to produce a road map, if you like, a plan of what they think may well be anticipated in terms of further restrictions post-Christmas so people know where we stand.
“We’ve still got confusion at the moment.”
Reactions
But not everyone is feeling assured after the PM’s announcement.
Here’s what people had to say:
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