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Keep calm and carry on with Christmas parties, Minister says


A minister has urged people to “keep calm and carry on” with their festival plans. Oliver Dowden, co-chair of the Conservatives, confirmed this morning that the Tories are not telling people to cancel Christmas parties.

However, a member of the Joint Committee on Immunization contradicts him, saying people should avoid going to parties.

Professor Adam Finn, a member of the JCVI, told Times Radio that people should be encouraged to work from home, wear masks and take regular lateral flow tests to combat the threat of Omicrons. . He advised the public not to attend parties.

Meanwhile, government agencies canceled their office parties yesterday despite the prime minister urging them to proceed. The education department has suspended plans for its annual talent show, which was scheduled to be in-person and run for employees to work from home.

“I personally encourage my team to have a Christmas party this year because we want to keep the workplace safe,” says Finn. I’ve definitely been wearing masks in public and working from home and doing all that since the summer. So that would be my advice.

“This issue is still happening to us, and if we all do what is necessary to try and reduce the spread of the virus, we’ll all be in a better place next year.”

Dowden dismissed the scientists’ concerns and said that people did not need to change their plans because of the Omicron variant. “I want to tell everyone to calm down and get on with your Christmas plans,” he said.

The education department has suspended plans for its annual talent show, which was scheduled to be live and streamed for employees to work from home. The sales department decided not to hold a Christmas party for employees.

Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid all insist that Christmas should be celebrated, despite the danger from the Omicron variant. “We don’t want people to feel that they need to start canceling things out,” the Prime Minister said yesterday. “You talk about kids in nativity plays and that sort of thing – I don’t think there’s a need to stop that.

“We’re taking a balanced and risk-averse approach, but I want and I believe this year’s Christmas will be significantly better than last year’s Christmas.”

Sunak, the prime minister, said: “People don’t need to cancel Christmas parties but they should follow the instructions.”

Javid, the health secretary, has a similar view, saying: “Go ahead with your Christmas parties and get-togethers and enjoy yourself, but be cautious and follow the instructions.” The health department is not planning a big Christmas party, he added, but he will take some of his staff out to dinner.

The government is accused of creating confusion when one minister said it was unreasonable to host hundreds of people and another warned against “snooping under the mistletoe”.

George Freeman, a business minister, says companies should reconsider parties for hundreds of employees. “The sales department won’t have a big Christmas party this year. No one would have expected us to be,” he told Today on BBC Radio 4. “We will meet on Zoom and toast to each other. ”

A spokesman for Johnson said there was no need to downsize Christmas parties. “There is nothing in the rules to prevent anyone from having a Christmas party,” he said. “The Prime Minister has been very clear about this. At Christmas parties, we don’t want people to cancel such events. There are no government guidelines for that purpose. ”

Number 10 also emphasizes that people are free to kiss whoever they like after Thérèse Coffey, the affairs and pensions secretary, warned against “snooping under the mistletoe”, and dismissed claims that Ministers confused the public, saying official guidance was “easily available”.

Earlier this week, Javid said people were “perfectly fine” to “do whatever we had planned for Christmas” including parties with hundreds of people, but encouraged them to take the test. Check the following traffic. He told Times Radio: “If I’m partying with 300 or 400 people for Christmas, I’ll take the test before I go. I think it’s just a reasonable precaution.”

Staff at University College London, NHS trust, toy company Bandai and Age UK used social media this week to report that staff parties have been cancelled.

Patrick Dardis, head of pub group Young’s, which operates more than 270 locations across the UK, said some Christmas bookings had been cancelled. “I think the message started out as a total overreaction and it’s not surprising that it alarmed some people,” he said.

Hotels UK, British Institute of Inn Management and British Beer and Pub Association urge people not to cancel reservations. They said: “Whole hotel locations across the UK will be going through their annual booking campaign this time of year, but it hasn’t materialized even before Omicron.





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