Wiltshire will stay in Tier 2 over the Christmas period following a review by the government. 

Following Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s announcement in the House of Commons today (December 17) there will be no change in Wiltshire’s Covid guidelines. 

Earlier in the week, Wiltshire’s public health boss, Kate Blackburn said that the county did not expect to move up in Tiers, as national press speculated a move to the tightest restrictions.

Leader of the council, Philip Whitehead said: “Thanks to everyone’s efforts, the Covid-19 case numbers in Wiltshire have been heading in the right direction over the last few weeks, and remaining in Tier 2 gives us the opportunity to maintain that progress.

“Christmas will be a crucial time and we really want to avoid a surge in cases come the new year, so we ask people to be as sensible as they can and that will put us in good stead as we head towards a more hopeful and brighter 2021.”

Yesterday (December 16) it was confirmed by the government that the Christmas Bubble rules will stay in place. 

This means that between December 23 and 27 people can form a bubble of up to three households. 

However, the government also said to think carefully about who is in their festive bubble -- a sentiment echoed by Mrs Blackburn. 

She said: “People don’t have to do this and whilst we know everyone is keen to celebrate Christmas if you do choose to form a bubble we advise you to limit the people in that bubble wherever possible.”

Mrs Blackburn advised when bubbles do meet up that they should maintain social distancing, continue washing hands, wearing masks where appropriate.

“We don’t want people to put their loved ones at risk this Christmas so it might be better to catch up friends and relatives on the phone or online – particularly where people are in the extremely clinically vulnerable groups,” she added.

“Those in the vulnerable groups can still form a Christmas bubble but should continue to limit social contact with people they don’t live with and consider taking extra precautions such as wearing a face-covering indoors and keeping those rooms well ventilated.

“Hopefully, if we can all follow these rules we’ll have a merrier Christmas next year.”