Crowded scenes on the first weekend of Christmas shopping after the easing of lockdown in England have prompted fears about a lack of social distancing and the risk of spreading coronavirus.
Despite overall footfall being down on the same period last year, images emerged on Sunday of busy high streets with shoppers standing close together, and a Christmas market in Nottingham had to be shut for good within 24 hours of opening. In addition four people were arrested as a crowd tried enter Harrods in the West End in London.
The hectic shopping scenes were criticised by Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), who warned “what we do now will define UK epidemic Dec-Feb before vaccines are widely available”.
Farrar, who is the director of the Wellcome Trust, added: “Vaccines are coming, we can look forward to a future beyond pandemic in 2021. But not yet – we have a very difficult weeks & months ahead.”
The Nottingham market was shut on Sunday after an outcry over pictures shared on social media showing hundreds of people crammed together at the event the previous day, despite the city having been placed in the highest tier of coronavirus restrictions earlier in the week.
The organiser, Mellors Group, initially said it had made the decision to shut the market temporarily because of unprecedented high footfall. However, on Sunday night, the events firm said it would remain shut for the rest of the year.
In a joint statement with Nottingham City Council, Mellors Group said: “Plans were in place to control access to help manage the number of people entering the site at any one time and to continually monitor this throughout Saturday. However, numbers were too large to implement these effectively.”
Several people on social media questioned why the event had been allowed to go ahead while the hospitality industry faced strict restrictions. Similar events in Birmingham and Manchester have been cancelled. Markets are allowed to trade under the tier 3 restrictions, but bars, pubs and restaurants are take-away only.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people were photographed crowding outside Harrods department store on Saturday afternoon, prompting similar criticism about a lack of social distancing and masks.
Michael Daley
(@daley021)
Regent Street,Harrods,Covent Garden on Saturday,London in big trouble in January. #Covid19UK pic.twitter.com/9qc5er4mdo
December 6, 2020
The Metropolitan police said officers had been called to the shop at about 1pm to “reports of a large group of people attempting to enter a shop”. The force said four males were arrested, including two for a breach of Covid regulations.
The chaotic scenes came despite warnings from scientists about the risks associated with gathering indoors, with one government scientist saying that Christmas shoppers should not spend longer than 15 minutes in one shop.
Sage adviser Prof Lucy Yardley told Times Radio: “The rule that is useful for contact tracing is that if you spend 15 minutes with somebody closer than 2 metres, then you have definitely had a potentially infectious contact with them.”
Social media was also flooded with images of crowds of Christmas shoppers in Regent Street and Covent Garden in London.
Pedro Da Silva
(@Peddasilv)
Of you think that is bad, look at Regents street and yet hospitality can’t open pic.twitter.com/r8zxanNPRK
December 6, 2020
Despite the packed scenes in some part of the country, visitor numbers to high streets and shopping centres were down by more than a third on this time last year.
Figures from retail analyst Springboard showed that although more than twice as many people visited UK high streets than on the previous Saturday, numbers remained 38% down on the first Saturday in December last year.
The West End in London and shopping centres in England experienced the biggest jumps in visitors, with footfall up 140% and 173% respectively compared with last weekend, but again below 2019’s figures.
Only retail parks, found predominantly on the edges of towns and reached by car, were roughly in line with last year’s figures, down just 7% from 2019 on Wednesday when the national lockdown rules were loosened, and 2% higher than last year on Saturday.
Diane Wehrle, Springboard’s marketing and insights director, said there were positive signs nonetheless, with numbers 63% higher than on 20 June, the first Saturday after the UK’s initial lockdown ended.
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Others said lost trading days and retailers’ attempts to woo shoppers with pre-Christmas sales could mean further business collapses in 2021. The level of insolvent debt in retail has grown by 48% in 2020 to £87.6m, far ahead of levels in the wider economy, according to analysis from Red Flag Alert.
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