Working on Christmas Day likely for PM and top medics amid Covid surge

Professor Chris Whitty said it was ‘pretty depressing’ to think of the gaps in rotas.
Boris Johnson said he has ‘modest plans’ for Christmas (Tolga Akmen/PA)
PA Wire
Geraldine Scott15 December 2021

Working on Christmas Day is likely for those leading the effort to tackle coronavirus, as the threat posed by the Omicron variant increased, England’s chief medical officer has said.

Professor Chris Whitty said the situation was “pretty depressing” to think about the gaps on rotas that would be seen in the health service, and that he expected his plans to be cancelled.

Boris Johnson said he has “pretty modest” arrangements, adding: “I think the way things are looking I expect a lot of us are going to be working throughout the period.”

Chris Whitty said he expects his Christmas plans to be cancelled (Tolga Akmen/PA)
PA Wire

It comes as Prof Whitty urged people to deprioritise some social interactions in order to make sure the meetings they wanted to keep could be met.

He said it was likely his Christmas plans this year with family will be interrupted.

He told a Downing Street press conference: “Realistically, I think there’s a high chance that my original Christmas plans with family are going to be interrupted. I hope it’s not completely but we shall see.”

He said the expected sharp peak of Omicron cases is likely to lead to lots of people, including healthcare workers, being ill at the same time.

He said: “We may end up with quite substantial gaps in rotas at short notice.”

He added: “Given how much difficulty my health and social care colleagues have had over the last two years, saying that is pretty depressing, because they have really, really had to stand up and go back again and again.

“The reality is this speed of onset is going to lead to lots of people getting ill simultaneously and we have to be realistic about that.”

Dr Nikki Kanani, medical director of primary care for NHS England apologised to her children live on television for their scaled-back plans in the run-up to Christmas.

She said: “As for my Christmas plans, they’re already scaling back. There will be far fewer things that I’ll do with my children as we run-up to Christmas – and if they’re listening, sorry, but that is absolutely a fact.

“We will enjoy it together, we will enjoy it at home and we will enjoy it safely.

“As and when I need to work over the Christmas period I will be, just as my colleagues will be, because that’s what we’re here to do.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in