The Ministry of Health has said that up to ten people will be able to meet over the Christmas holiday period, in line with procedures already announced in a number of other communities, providing that the accumulated incidence rate and infections continue to decline in the Region.

However everything is conditional on how the epidemiological situation is on 20th December.

This was announced on Wednesday morning by the spokesperson for the Covid-19 Monitoring Committee in the Region, Jaime Pérez, during his appearance to report the coronavirus situation in the Community.

The epidemiological situation in the days immediately before Christmas “will determine the real risks of celebrating Christmas with the family, whether we ease the situation with regards to social gatherings or we are more discreet, with much less social interaction,” Perez acknowledged.

He said that “if they had asked us this question three weeks ago, we would have said that these easing measures could not be taken, but given the forecasts that the incidence may continue to decline, we think that there may now be certain measures that could be made more flexible.”

Pérez added that, on many occasions, six people – the maximum number that can come together in the Region with the current measures – “is just a family nucleus,” and that at Christmas time there could be an exception made so that more people can gather with at least one more family nucleus.

In this sense, the epidemiologist stressed that the Region is “on the right track”, since the measures adopted so far are “saving lives”, but he said that the Community is still “on knife edge and at any moment the situation could turn around “.

He concluded by appealing to members of the public that they continue to act responsibly, to use masks and to maintain safety distance, hand washing and ventilation, so that the possibility of us being able to ease restrictions over the Christmas holiday period would be more likely.