'Have they gone crazy?' Sheffield nurse reacts to Christmas lockdown easing reports

In an impassioned speech, Joan Pons Laplana, a nurse at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals who answered the call to return to intensive care during the first wave of the pandemic, warns that easing the lockdown over the festive period would cost lives.

“Today I heard the Government wants to relax the law to be able for Christmas to mix households again and relax the strict measures we have now,” he says in the video, which he recorded yesterday, Thursday, November 19.

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“Have they gone crazy? Have they not learned anything? As a nurse I feel even stronger, that will increase again the people infected by the coronavirus. People will die for that.

“Is that what people want? To spread joy and cheer and a bit of Covid to their loved ones? To their mum and dad, to their grandads, and end up in the hospital?”

The Unison representative added that hospitals are already under great pressure, with the number of coronavirus patients having risen and around a tenth of staff unavailable as many are forced to self-isolate.

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“We cannot carry on doing all the jobs now with more patients. Tired nurses make mistakes and mistakes not only cost lives, they also cost the mental health of the nurses,” he said

“We don’t have the promised test and trace that’s out of this world, and also the mass testing. We cannot control this virus.

“My message is stay in, stay safe. Please stay at home.”

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Mr Laplana’s video message came on the day it was reported ministers are considering letting families choose a small number of households they can socialise indoors with for five days, starting on Christmas Eve.

A public health expert in Sheffield said a normal Christmas in the city remained possible, especially if the infection rate continues to fall, but was a ‘long shot’.

Scientists have suggested five days of tighter rules would be needed for every day measures are eased.

Downing Street said proposals to ease restrictions over Christmas will be set out next week.