Coronavirus cases have soared by 50 per cent in Oxfordshire and people are being urged to be careful and to not gift Covid this Christmas.

People in Oxfordshire are being encouraged to continue to abide by the rules before and during the festive season to avoid giving their loved ones Covid.

The Government has confirmed that Oxfordshire will remain at the tier 2 ‘high’ alert level for the next two weeks as part of the national system of restrictions in place to combat the virus. The next review of the tier system is expected to take place on 30 December.

Ansaf Azhar, Oxfordshire County Council’s Director for Public Health highlighted that this means residents should not go for a meal with their friends or invite people over for Christmas drinks.

He said: “Christmas is now close. It is a time for enjoyment, but we need to adapt so that we can enjoy ourselves without giving Covid-19 the chance to join the party. We have seen that this virus thrives on human contact - the rules exist to stop it spreading.

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“Tier 2 status reflects our current situation locally, but in the past seven days alone cases have increased by almost 50 per cent in Oxfordshire.

"So, we’re far from out of the woods and we could easily find ourselves in tier 3 in the new year unless we take care now. We have seen that our neighbours in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire have been moved to tier 3. That is a clear warning. Covid-19 will not be taking a break for Christmas."

Following a warning from two leading medical publications – the BMJ and Health Service Journal – saying an easing of restrictions would “cost many lives”, the Government is still to go ahead and ease restrictions over Christmas between December 23 and 27.

However, until the restrictions are eased for Christmas allowing up to three households to form an exclusive Christmas bubble, people are urged to not mix with other households.

Mr Azhar is urging people to be "extra vigilant in the run-up to Christmas" saying that although the vaccine is good news, it will be "some way" into the new year before it provides protection to larger numbers.

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He said: “Unless we all take personal responsibility as individuals and families throughout the coming weeks, we risk creating a situation in January that will see steeply rising numbers of cases at exactly the time of year when viruses thrive.

He added: "This means putting even more pressure on our NHS at its busiest time of year. We need to protect ourselves and the NHS as we enter 2021."

The most recent figures for Oxfordshire (week ending December 11) saw the number of cases at 862 compared with 579 in the previous week. This is 124.6 cases per 100,000 compared to 83.7 per 100,000 for the week ending December 4.

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