Javid: Take Covid test before parties

PEOPLE should carry on with their plans for Christmas, the Health Secretary has insisted, though he urged partygoers to take a Covid lateral flow test before attending events.

As the Government accelerates the Covid booster programme to help slow down the spread of the new Omicron variant, Sajid Javid said people should continue following Government advice despite warnings from some health officials over the risks of socialising.

Boris Johnson also urged people to follow the current guidance but faced questions over whether lockdown rules were broken at a Christmas Party in Number 10 last year and insisted “all guidance was followed completely”.

The Government has tightened the rules around PCR tests for travellers returning to the UK and introduced quarantine rules for people from high-risk countries, as well as bringing back face coverings in shops and on public transport in England.

Mr Javid told Sky News: “People should continue to behave in the way they were planning to behave over Christmas, I don’t think there is any need to change those plans.” Asked if people should take a Covid test before attending Christmas

parties, Mr Javid said: would.”

He later told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you are invited to a Christmas party, there’s quite a few people there, maybe you want to take an LFT (lateral flow test) before you go. Go to the party, but just be cautious.”

Asked if he would wear a mask if he was at a party, Mr Javid said: “It depends if I am walking around or sitting down. It depends if I’m eating. People just need to make a decision based on the guidance.”

It comes as Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said some NHS organisations had asked staff “not to mix in big groups” in the run-up to Christmas owing to fears off staff absences.

She told Sky News this year was “very different” to last year when “it was absolutely clear that nobody was going to a Christmas party”.

She added: “This year, we are in a slightly different place – people will be taking their own decisions. We know that many NHS trusts, for example, are asking their staff not to mix in big groups in the run-up

“I to Christmas because of the potential threat to their health and what they will be available to do. So, they are setting one example there.

“Without that advice for Government, I think it’s for individuals and individual organisations to think about what they will be doing in the run-up to Christmas. But it’s a really challenging and difficult one.

“We can encourage everyone to go out and get their booster when it’s made available to them and to book in for that because that’s one of the best defences that we’ve got alongside wearing masks, washing your hands and also making sure you’re in ventilated rooms.”

Leaked minutes of a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meeting on Monday, seen by the BBC, show scientists believe booster jabs are likely to provide protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death from most variants in the short term.

But the notes say: “Any significant reduction in protection against infection could still result in a very large wave of infections.”

“This would, in turn, lead to a potentially high number of hospitalisations even with protection against severe disease being less affected.”