Prof Jason Leitch: ‘Relaxing rules at Christmas is not green light for Scots to have big party’

Jason Leitch has said the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions at Christmas should be used only to relieve social isolation – not to have a big party.

Scotland’s National Clinical said the public health advice is to remain cautious, as he reminded Scots “the virus will not take Christmas off”.

Restrictions will be eased between December 23 and December 27 to allow three households to form a “bubble”, permitting them to meet indoors, outdoors or in a place of worship.

Prof Leitch said “everything was on the table” at discussions between the four UK nations on a united approach to Christmas, including lifting all restrictions for one day or keeping all the regulations in place – but they concluded it was right to offer people some flexibility.

Professor Jason Leitch said the public health advice is to remain cautious, as he reminded Scots “the virus will not take Christmas off”.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Friday, he said: “The four nations agreed that this is such a big deal, such a big holiday and celebration for the United Kingdom, that it was important to offer some kind of guidance so that people didn’t just do whatever they please and broke all the rules.

“We decided three households, five days and then we left the definition of that to the individual demographics.

“The public health advice is cautious, we want people to use it to relieve social isolation not to have a big Christmas party.

“Reserve the Christmas parties for after the vaccine, for after the pandemic.”

Scots are advised to have no more than eight people aged over 12 in any Christmas bubble they form, and these can only include one extended household.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.