UK medical journals urge government to refrain from easing COVID-19 norms for Christmas

Possible plans to relax COVID-19 restrictions at Christmas must be reversed or many lives could be lost, a rare joint editorial by the UK’s two most eminent medical journals warned. Earlier, the country's Health Secretary Matt Hancock reckoned that authorities were mulling if COVID-19 restrictions could be relaxed near Christmas. 

The call by the medical journals was echoed by the head of the hospital doctor’s union, who described the government’s plans as "kamikaze", The Guardian reported. As per the article published in The British Medical Journal and Health Services Journal, the government could no longer claim to protect the country’s healthcare facilities if it went ahead with its "rash plan" to allow indoor mixing of households during the festival.

"We believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives," it read. As per the publications, the extra caseload of COVID-19 patients could swell up to 40 times higher if restrictions were loosened. In that case, NHS  could expect over 19000 new COVID-19 patients by New Year’s eve. As per John Hopkins University, the country has already reported over 1898447 cases and over 65,006 fatalities.

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Letter to Johnson

Meanwhile, the call was also reiterated by the Labour Party which urged the government to rethink its decision. For this purpose, the opposite has asked them to convene Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBRA). A letter regarding the same was also sent to Johnson by Keir Starmer, as per reports.

 "This is a critical moment for our country. The failure of your tiered system to control the virus leaves us with precious little headroom," Starmer wrote. "Put simply, if you take the wrong decision now, the ramifications for our NHS and our economy in the new year could be severe."

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan was also among those calling on the government to look again at the easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas. "The concern is this — the rules have been relaxed for five days, allowing household mixing for up to three different households and inevitably when people are in their own households, they tend to be less vigilant. And my concern is that many people may have the virus and not realise it. They could pass the virus on to older relations," he was quoted as saying by AP. 

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(Image Credits: AP)