UK hospitality and entertainment firms call for clarity on restrictions over Christmas

UK hospitality and entertainment firms call for clarity on restrictions over Christmas
December 21, 2021, 9:50 am

UK-London-Regent street-Christmas lights/Pixabay

The BBC reported that hospitality and entertainment firms are calling for a clear decision from the government on whether to expect further Covid restrictions in England in the coming days.

It mentioned that Boris Johnson did not announce any new measures on Monday, but said data was being reviewed "hour by hour".

After a two-hour cabinet meeting on Monday, the prime minister said the government was "looking at all kinds of things" to keep the Omicron variant under control and "ruled nothing out".

He added, there were still some things "we need to be clearer about before we decide to go further."

BBC political correspondent Damian Grammaticas said it now seemed unlikely that new restrictions could be enacted in England before Christmas.

He added, but hospitality and entertainment businesses were facing critical decisions in the coming hours about whether to go ahead with or cancel events over the holiday period.

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The BBC said that last Christmas, large parts of south-east England were banned from mixing with other households, while for the rest of England, Scotland and Wales, people were only allowed to mix indoors on Christmas Day.

On Monday, a further 91,743 Covid cases were reported across the UK - the second highest daily total on record.

UK-Christmas in London-Street lights/Pixabay

The high case numbers have meant many people are now off work and self isolating - while others have cancelled bookings or events to try to avoid becoming infected in the run-up to Christmas, hitting businesses hard.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality which represents more than 700 bars, hotels and leisure venues, said some had lost about half of their usual December trade.

She said businesses were now "in limbo" and needed notice of any changes looked at next week ahead of the New Year.

Source: BBC

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