2020 has proved to be extremely challenging for everyone due to COVID-19.

Over the last nine months, residents have had to juggle home schooling, working from home, job losses, being furloughed, illness, worries, anxiety and, sadly, bereavements.

At the same time, our local businesses have had to close, adapt and operate with a host of new safety measures in place.

As we prepare to come out of a national lockdown, arrangements can now be made to spend time with family over the festive period. But, it’s important to remember that this won’t be a normal Christmas and things haven’t gone back to normal as the virus is still spreading in our communities.

The Government has agreed with the other nations of the UK (Scotland, Ireland and Wales) a set of Christmas ‘rules’ to ensure a consistent approach for people to follow. They have announced that from Wednesday 23rd to Sunday 27th December:

you can form an exclusive ‘Christmas bubble’ composed of people from no more than three households;
you can only be in one Christmas bubble;
you cannot change your Christmas bubble;
you can travel between tiers and UK nations for the purposes of meeting your Christmas bubble;
you can only meet your Christmas bubble in private homes or in your garden, places of worship, or public outdoor spaces;
you can continue to meet people who are not in your Christmas bubble outside your home according to the rules in the tier where you are staying;
you cannot meet someone in a private dwelling who is not part of your household or Christmas bubble;
people who are self isolating should not join a Christmas bubble.
In addition, when meeting your Christmas bubble you should take these measures to prevent the spread of the virus:

wash your hands frequently
clean touch points regularly, such as door handles and surfaces
If you are only visiting someone for a short time, you should:

keep socially distanced from anybody you do not live with as much as possible
make sure you let as much fresh air in as you can during a visit and after visitors have left, without getting cold, by opening windows and doors
When following these new rules, we must each continue to take personal responsibility to limit the spread of the virus and protect our loved ones, particularly if they are vulnerable. The full restrictions regarding Christmas arrangements can be found on the Government’s website.

Sefton Council Leader Cllr Ian Maher said:

“It’s so important that we don’t undo all of the good work we’ve done over the last few months to get our figures down.

“COVID-19 is easily transmitted from person to person and I also know how hard it has been for family and friends who haven’t been able to see each other. We all want life to go back to normal, but we need to ensure that we follow the rules to keep our infection rates down and avoid the need for further (and tighter) restrictions being imposed on us.

We know that relaxing the rules means the virus grows, so please be sensible and enjoy the festivities safely.”

As long as the schools stay open everyone is at risk, my son is in secondary school and every day they have been sending home groups of kids from classes, today he called me at 9am from the classroom ( teacher said it’s ok to ) and told me 2 full classes and one person from his class have been sent home today in his year following kids with positive test results, the school emailed parents and advised parents that there was A covid case in school but not to worry kids don’t suffer too badly in general ( even though on the news this morning it was said that thousands of kids are dying of it ) as those affected were sent home, ( under playing it a bit ).
I would take my kid out altogether if I could but would get fined, I feel like they are walking the kids ( and parents ) right into it and it’s only a matter of time before they all get it, it’s like we just waiting for it to happen . For me they should close the schools if they really want to stop the virus .
You watch, my kid will get it then I will get it and that’s the last you hear of me . My opinion is they just making me wait for the inevitable.
Everyone will mix at Christmas and cases will soar in January most of what I have said is pretty obvious really .