If you have found it a struggle keeping up with all the new Covid-19 rules, you will not be the only one.

This week the nation is being lifted out of lockdown and regions placed under varying degrees of restrictions, with Richmond moving into Tier 2.

These will be lifted for a five day period around Christmas so that families can get together with their loved ones.

Healthwatch Richmond upon Thames – an independent watchdog for local health and social care services – is here to explain what you need to know about this period.

Forming a Christmas bubble between December 23 and 27

• You can form a 'Christmas bubble' composed of no more than three households
• you can only be in one Christmas bubble and cannot change your Christmas bubble
• you must not form a Christmas bubble if you are self-isolating
• existing support bubbles count as one household towards the three household limit
• you can still form a Christmas bubble even if you are clinically extremely vulnerable

Meeting with your support bubble

• You can travel between tiers and UK nations to meet your Christmas bubble. Once at your destination, you should follow the rules in that tier
• you can only meet within your Christmas bubble in private homes and gardens, places of worship, and public outdoor places
• you should travel to meet those in your Christmas bubble and return home between the 23 and 27 December
• you must not meet friends or family in your or their home if they are not part of your Christmas bubble
• if someone is in your Christmas bubble you can visit each other's homes and stay overnight
• you can continue to meet people who are not in your Christmas bubble outside your home according to the rules of the tier you are staying in.

After meeting your Christmas bubble

• In the two weeks that follow your last meeting with your Christmas bubble, you should reduce your contact with people you do not live with as much as possible
• children can continue to go to school
• if any member of a Christmas bubble tests positive for coronavirus or develops coronavirus symptoms during the Christmas period then all members of the bubble must self-isolate
• you can go to work if you cannot work from home, but you should avoid unnecessary social interaction. Any increase in contact with other people increases the risk you will catch or spread coronavirus.

We hope this clarifies things!

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