Put office Christmas
Nicola Sturgeon warns workers to delay their festive bash until the spring, while also calling on families to ‘cut down on unnecessary contacts’, reports Alistair Grant
NICOLA Sturgeon has warned against office Christmas parties as she suggested postponing in-person celebrations until the summer.
The First Minister made the comments as she urged those planning to meet relatives over the festive period to “cut down on unnecessary contacts” now.
Restrictions will be eased between December 23 and 27 to allow up to eight people from three households to meet indoors.
But Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly urged Scots not to take advantage of this unless they feel they have to.
Meanwhile, she said the best way of marking Christmas with colleagues is to do it virtually or postpone gatherings until next spring or summer.
The First Minister said it “might sound obvious, but it is really important”.
Speaking during the Scottish Government’s regular coronavirus briefing, she said: “Obviously if you can’t work from home and you’re sharing a workplace with colleagues right now, I understand why it might be tempting to have some sort of celebration or social gathering at work because this obviously has been a really difficult time for everyone.
“But office parties, especially if they involve alcohol, present a real risk of transmission.
“People are less likely to stick to physical distancing requirements than when they’re working, and more likely to pass around food or drinks without perhaps washing their hands as carefully as they should.
“But I’m asking everybody, please don’t take these risks.
“By far the best way of marking Christmas with your colleagues this year is to do it virtually.
“It’s not as much fun, I appreciate that, but it is much, much safer.
“And if you can’t do that, then perhaps think about postponing your Christmas celebration until into next year – perhaps the spring or the summer of next year, when hopefully we will be starting to see some greater normality return to our lives.
“I know that all of this is really hard, especially at the end of a horrible year when I think everybody could do with letting their hair down a bit.
“But these times are not normal, and it is really important that we get through them as safely as possible.
“So please think about the risks and avoid them as much as possible, in the interests of keeping yourselves and others safe.”
She added: “Hopefully by this time next year all of this will be starting to feel like a really bad memory.
“But this year I think it is the case that the best Christmas gift we can give family and friends is as far as possible to keep our distance and keep them safe.”
Ms Sturgeon conceded Christmas could be one of the hardest periods in the coronavirus crisis for many.
She said: “We have been living with this for 10 months, it is wearisome, it is difficult, it is causing a lot of people a lot of mental stress and worry and anxiety.
“However difficult it has been over the past 10 months, I think for a lot of people the next couple of weeks will be the most difficult period yet because we are going into a period when we normally all of us like to spend time with loved ones, including loved ones we might not see regularly for the rest of the year.
“It is tough. I think it is understandable people are thoroughly scunnered and fed up with it.”
She added: “If it makes anybody feel any better, which I don’t expect it will, I feel utterly scunnered and fed up as well.
“But we are still in the grip of this virus.
“So tough though it is, it is in the interests of all of us and those we love to stick with it.”
Ms Sturgeon advised those who will be meeting other households over Christmas that they should “start thinking about reducing unnecessary contact” with others in the run-up to the rules being eased on December 23.
She said this is “particularly the case” for those planning to meet elderly relatives over Christmas.
She said mixing with other households over Christmas is “not risk-free”.
She said: “I want to remind everyone once again that just because we can visit people indoors over Christmas on a limited basis does not mean that we have to.”
Ms Sturgeon said no coronavirus deaths had been recorded in Scotland in the previous 24 hours but there were 734 new cases.
She warned death figures tend to be “artificially low” on Mondays as many registry offices are closed at the weekend.
Elsewhere, the First Minister welcomed the first care home residents in Scotland being vaccinated yesterday morning, but said the virus remains a “real and present danger”.
Annie Innes, 90, was one of dozens of elderly Scots to be given the first dose of the Pfizer/biontech vaccine as it was rolled out into care homes.
The former carer, who has been living in Abercorn House Care Home in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, for six months, said she was relieved to have been offered the jab.
Ms Sturgeon also announced the Protect Scotland app can now be downloaded by any secondary school pupil, when it was previously limited to those aged at least 16.
She said: “By downloading the app, young people will be helping to control and mitigate any outbreaks amongst young people and I think that will be particularly important over holiday periods.”
She said the app has now been downloaded by more than 1.7 million across Scotland, and has notified more than 20,000 of the need to self-isolate.
Giving a further update on the daily coronavirus figures, Ms Sturgeon said the daily test positivity rate is 7.6 per cent, up from 5.2%t on Sunday.
There are 1,012 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, a fall of three in 24 hours.
If it makes anybody feel any better, which I don’t expect it will, I feel utterly scunnered and fed up as well