This is bbc news. The headlines at seven. The government signals that families could be allowed to celebrate christmas together in what it calls a limited and cautious way. But how many can meet and for how long is still being decided, as the options are considered. We have to find a balance, i guess, between covid restrictions and the well being and Mental Health of our nations. The head of the us Coronavirus Programme says he hopes the First Americans will be vaccinated in december, as the country passes 12 million confirmed cases. At the end of the virtual 620 summit, leaders of the worlds richest nations call for the vaccine to be made affordable so poorer countries dont get left behind. The nhs in england is set to get an extra £3 billion,
but the chancellor warns of tough times ahead for the economy because of the pandemic. And coming up on sportsday everton end a run of three straight defeats with a 2 3 win away to fulham. Good evening. Families will be allowed to celebrate christmas together in what the government is calling a limited and cautious way, it confirmed this afternoon. The Prime Minister and the leaders of the devolved nations are finalising the details of a joint approach, allowing different households to travel and meet but how many, and for how long is still being discussed. England is still to emerge from lockdown on december second, and will then face a tougher tiered system of restrictions. Heres our deputy Political Editor vicki young. Christmas cheer, but not too much. The Prime Minister has warned us that the Festive Season will not be normal, but across the four nations of the uk, they have been trying to come up with a joint set of rules, allowing families and friends to meet up. It is not quite finalised, but in a statement, the Cabinet Office said there was a shared objective to allow some limited additional household bubbling for a small number of days. But the public will be advised to remain cautious and, wherever possible, people should avoid travelling and minimise social contact. But it is notjust christmas that ministers in england have to think about. Before that, on december the 2nd, National Restrictions will end, but with coronavirus still spreading, many measures will have to stay in place. We will be going back into a more localised approach, a tiered system, which i think is enormously welcome. A tougher tiered system . Yes, and i think what people should realise is we learn more as we go through this crisis and as we get more data, more information, we can see what works well, what does not, and then essentially evolve our response to ensure it is effective as it can be. After complaints from many scientists, the new tiers will be tougher than before, and more areas will be in the higher levels to keep the virus under control. But 70 of borisjohnsons own mps have written to tell him they will not vote for the system unless they see evidence it will save more lives than it costs. Labour want clarity as soon as possible. You cannotjust open a restaurant, open by a bar, start brewing beer, getting ready for after a National Lockdown overnight. You need some notice of that. And all of us, from andy burnham, everybody else, members
of the public, we need a clear understanding about what about what the criteria are going to be. Across the uk, the rules on households mixing will be relaxed for christmas. Shoppers in london are giving that a cautious welcome. Ifeel ecstatic because i miss my friends, i miss my family, so any opportunity will be so welcome. Covid doesnt know its christmas, so even if we couldnt, i would be ok with not celebrating it if it meant saving more peoples lives. I think it will be important to see what the levels are like before christmas, but the idea of being able to celebrate with family is obviously really nice. But the risks from covid havent gone away. Celebrations at christmas could be followed by many more weeks of hardship. With me now is our deputy Political Editor vicki young. These discussions, as far as we know, are still ongoing. There are two things here in the cabinet is talking more about those english
tiers and that is pretty controversial. Lots of conservative mps do not think things should be tightened. They are called for the opposite. They have clearly said, 70 of them, that they will not back it at less the government comes up with some written analysis of what it means. They are worried about not just covid deaths, but other consequences of that, and we have seen that in terms of waiting lists on the nhs for other illnesses. There is some backlash from a sizeable number of conservative mps. They will be a vote in the commons over this and it could be Boris Johnson relies on labour vote if they vote for these tiered restrictions. They have up until now voted for tighter restrictions so you imagine this will be the case. We know on the 3rd of december, wanting and comes out of National Restrictions, it will be a tighter tiered system. We do not know what it will be yet, but tear one, the government scientists have complained that it had no effect
whatsoever. We also know they will be more areas of england put into those higher tiers. It is too early to celebrate the end of what we have been calling lockdown. As far as christmas is concerned, still very much up to negotiations between the government in westminster and the devolved administrations. Yes, for obvious reasons they wanted to be a four nation approach. It is much easier given there has been a lot of complaints about the confusion about all these rules, if they can at least try and adopt something together. I think they have today said that they do agree that there will be a relaxed asian and the mixing of households will be. There will be a relaxation. 0ne mixing of households will be. There will be a relaxation. One idea suggested yesterday that there could be three households mixing indoors. That has not been signed off and it raises questions. Does it include
the time it takes to get from devon to scotland 7 that the time it takes to get from devon to scotland . That is a days travelling in itself. Plus, if you haveit travelling in itself. Plus, if you have it as five days, people will then be going on the trains, the roads, at the same time, crowding and then going against what they are trying to achieve. It is fraught with difficulty. The government scientists would rather, lets face it, it was not happening at all, they are concerned this will mean more infections and inevitably more deaths. One more thing we have to look at this week is the chancellors Spending Review. He has given some interesting signals today about, for example, not looking at tax rises, more money for the nhs. Is the message, we will not worry about the orange until were well past the crisis, both and health until. Not worry about the borrowing until were well past the crisis. He will surely plan for how
things will get back onto. The hint is he will not have to actually implement tax rises yet but they will be coming. What is still up for negotiation is when they decide to do it. The electoral cycle comes into this and some are saying, it is better to do that now, so having been the chancellor who has been throwing money around and being incredibly popular, lots of people say that because of it, that will actually mean he has to do the opposite. When is best to do that . For the conservative party, notjust before a general election. And on whom it falls and when it falls is going to be extremely throat. I think he is very much aware of all of that. Extremely throat. He said that whatever it takes, he will still continue to do that, particularly funding the nhs. Thank you very much. What is the impact of the return to the tiered system in england and tier systems being
tougher when lockdown ends in england . And which areas of the country are likely to return to the tightest levels of restrictions . Our Health CorrespondentDominic Hughes reports from west yorkshire. Its a busy sunday in Hebden Bridge in west yorkshire. Those who could were making the most of the chance to get out and about. But even as the Christmas Decorations are given a final touch, for some businesses, the days to come are filled with uncertainty. This place is my baby. I am worried we will not make it through lockdown. We cant plan anything, we cant think ahead about, all right, maybe in two weeks time, lockdown could be lifted, but there is also the chance it might not be. Before this latest lockdown, the local council, calderdale, was poised to enter tier 3. But Covid Infection rates have stayed stubbornly high. So what is the right thing to do over christmas . I mean, look around you. You know, this is a market that, in a time of lockdown, people are desperate for connection, people want to be out meeting each other. And we have to find a balance, i guess. We have to find a balance between the Mental Health and well being and that of our nations. Ultimately, we have got to look at the bigger picture. Its very easy to focus on christmas as the big family thing, and it is, but one christmas might not have as big a deal for less christmases in the future for some members of our families. This map shows the areas with the highest rates of covid i9 infections. In england, parts of the northwest and northeast, east and west yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and the east midlands could well find themselves back in tier 3. Meanwhile, parts of west and Central Scotland are already in the countrys highest level of restrictions until december the 11th. And Northern Ireland is facing another two weeks of lockdown from friday, having just reopened some services. It is the pressure that hospitals like this one that are under that is the real source of concern. They are busy now, i am told, then they were
during the first surge of covid in the spring. There are now concerns about the advice for people over christmas. I would like to see the right advice being made based on the signs. I think people can get together at christmas if they stick rigidly to what is being recommended right now. I worry about people bridging recommendations and being in itfor bridging recommendations and being in it for the long haul. The uk government is in talks with the administrations in scotland, wales and Northern Ireland to try to agree a unified approach to covid restrictions over christmas. But many families will be determined to get together over christmas, whatever the government says. Dominic hughes, bbc news. The latest government figures show there were 18,662 new Coronavirus Infections recorded in the latest 24 hour period. The average number of new cases reported per day in the last week is now 20,390. Just over 1700 people have been admitted to hospital on average each day over the week to last friday. 398 deaths were reported, thats people who died within 28 days of a positive covid i9 test. It means on average in the past week, a42 deaths were announced every day. It takes the total number of deaths so far across the uk to 55,024. And well find out how this story, and many others, are covering in tomorrows front pages at 10 30 and 11 30 this evening in the papers our guests joining me tonight are john rentoul, chief political commentator for the independent and sam lister, deputy Political Editor at the daily express. I hope youll stay us for that on abc news. Bbc news. Bbc news. Chancellor rishi sunak is set to announce an extra £3 billion of funding for the nhs next week, but has warned of tough times ahead for the economy. Despite the boost to the health service, due to be pledged in the Spending Review on wednesday, today the chancellor said the impact of coronavirus on the economy must eventually be paid for. Public sector debt currently stands at over £2 trillion. The chancellor told andrew marr that the high level of spending was justified. Now is the right time to focus on responding to the crisis, and that means, yes, we will be borrowing, quite frankly, an enormous sum this year to help us do that, but that is the right thing to do for the Long Term Health of the economy and public finances. And we are doing that to protect peoples jobs, their livelihoods, support businesses, as weve talked about, but also provide the funds necessary to fight coronavirus, and that will be at the centre of the Spending Review next week. Well be providing those funds, whether its for testing, for vaccines, for the nhs, and thats the right thing to do now, and that is an approach thats been endorsed by the imf, the 0br, the bank of england and others. Our business correspondent, katy austin, said the chancellor faces a difficult a challenge in balancing the competing demands of spending to tackle coronavirus and how the borrowing will be paid for. What we have got here is these two sort of competing realities, if you like, where in the immediate term you have the chancellor saying, look, we still need to be putting the money up to notjust fight coronavirus, but to support businesses, protectjobs through it. And also, we need to invest in the future, we need to be thinking about the money we will put towards these big Infrastructure Projects that will benefit the economy in the long term, enable a bigger recovery, if you like. The government likes to say, build back better. That is one of their slogans around this. There is that aim that we need to be spending on important things,
but there is just this reality that borrowing has got so high and the chancellor has talked about the need to make it more sustainable and make the public finances more sustainable. How might he do that . That is exactly the big question. He seems to be saying in interviews today we will not go to austerity this week, that is not how we will approach it in the immediate term. There has also been speculation about tax rises. Again, the chancellor has been signalling it is not the time for that, at least not now. That is, really, the big debate now there is going to have to be some sort of action to raise money. The question is how soon you can do that without it being counter productive and preventing a recovery. It is now 7 15pm. The headlines. The government signals that families will be allowed to celebrate christmas together in what it calls a limited
and cautious way. But how many can meet and for how long is still being decided, as the options are considered. The us hopes to start vaccinating people against coronavirus in fewer than three weeks, as the country passes 12 million confirmed infections. At the end of the virtual g20 summit, leaders of the worlds richest nations have called for the vaccine to be made affordable so poorer countries dont get left behind. The United States could start the first coronavirus immunisations as soon as 11th of december, according to the head of the us governments covid 19 vaccine programme. The us food and Drug Administration is due to meet to consider emergency approval for two vaccines from pfizer and moderna on december the 10th. Dr Moncef Slaoui said the vaccines could swiftly shipped out within 2a hours of after that. The us is battling with a surge in cases, with infections now totalling more than 12 million. Lebo diseko is in washington. This is some good news against the backdrop of a frankly worsening situation in the United States. Backdrop of a frankly worsening situation in the United Statesm is certainly encouraging, but asjoe bidens team have pointed out, the bulk of the vaccination process, if in back these two vaccines do clear that fda approval, will take place under the biden administration. At the moment, because the trump team refused to recognise that there is a transition taking place, they do not have access to the type of people need to speak to, they cannot begin these discussions around what the plan is to roll out this vaccine. A Senior Adviser to the biden team, she is also Kamala Harriss spokesperson, says that every Single Person there is a delay in
ascertainment, the formal signing off of the transition, puts the effective distribution of the vaccination in danger. That is something joe biden has set himself. He said a few days ago that lives we re he said a few days ago that lives were at risk, really, because they cannot speak to the people they need to about this roll out. Joe biden has said that himself. One thing that dr Moncef Slaoui was warning about was that the number of people who were vaccine sceptics, reluctant to have the vaccines. Looking at surveys , to have the vaccines. Looking at surveys, it has fallen slightly, but one infour surveys, it has fallen slightly, but one in four people are saying they would refuse the vaccine even if offered to them, as the biden team are saying it will be, free of charge. I was really interested to and see dr Moncef Slaoui at the has been no that dr Moncef Slaoui had said there was no political interference. That goes to show
where we are, people do not trust the administration or the process. They perhaps feel that the current president may have lent on the medical teams to try and find a vaccine quicker than might be do so. That was underscored by doctor anthony voucher, also speaking this morning saying, look, we need people to ta ke morning saying, look, we need people to take up this vaccine because there is no point having a vaccine thatis there is no point having a vaccine that is more than 90 effective if you dont have the 70 take up you nee