‘Change or delay’ Christmas gatherings with lots of people, WHO urges

‘An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled,’ says organisation’s head

Christmas gatherings with lots of people should be “changed or delayed” to stop the spread of Omicron, a World Health Organisation spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Dr Margaret Harris said the WHO had cancelled its annual Christmas meet-up for journalists because they were concerned about the rise in coronavirus infections.

She said others should consider cancelling Christmas gatherings if lots of people were planning on attending, especially if they were travelling from a number of different places.

She was speaking hours before Boris Johnson confirmed there would be no additional Covid restrictions imposed before Christmas, allowing millions of households to go ahead with festive plans.

Dr Harris said: “If you have gatherings that are not going to be safe, change them, delay them, do them later – don’t do them now.

“If you’ve got a large number of people, or a considerable number of people, especially people coming from different places. You don’t know what their exposure’s been. People coming together in that sort of circumstance – what we call social mixing – that’s the moment at which you’re most likely to spread Covid and particularly Omicron.”

She said the WHO didn’t want to cancel Christmas but was instead urging caution around large events.

Her warnings come after the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said “an event cancelled is better than a life cancelled”.

He urged people to postpone gatherings and said that holiday get-togethers could lead to “increased cases, overwhelmed health systems and more deaths”.

“All of us are sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal”, he added. “The fastest way to do this is for all of us leaders and individuals to make the difficult decisions that must be made to protect ourselves and others.

“In some cases, that will mean cancelling or delaying events.”

A government minister revealed he has changed his own plans and called for people across the UK to have a “cautious” Christmas.

Steve Barclay told LBC he had downsized the number of family members at his Christmas celebrations this year, with only his in-laws attending.

The Cabinet Office minister said: “We are saying to people that they should continue with Christmas but do so in a cautious way. That is what I will be doing with my own family.

“We can all protect our families and friends by having the booster.”

When asked what a cautious Christmas was, he added: “I think it is thinking about how many people we need to see. Some of my family won’t be coming over at Christmas. My wife’s parents will be joining us but others will not.”