NICOLA Sturgeon has been urged to release the evidence used to justify the relaxing of coronavirus rules over Christmas.

On Tuesday, the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland announced a change to the guidance over the festive period to allow for more mixing.

Between December 23 and 27 up to three households will be able to form a bubble, and to travel between local authorities and the four nations. 

READ MORE: Covid in Scotland: Three households allowed to mix at Christmas for five days in UK-wide plan

However, the move has sparked concern from public health experts

Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) told the BBC’s Newsnight that that he wouldn’t be gathering with family at Christmas.

“Effectively what this will be doing is throwing fuel on the Covid fire. It is likely to lead to a third wave of infection, with hospitals being overrun, and more unnecessary deaths,” he said.

On Channel 4, Scottish Government adviser Professor Devi Sridhar said: “It’s inevitable that when you have more people mixing indoors, you have travel restrictions being lifted meaning moves from high prevalence to low prevalence areas we are going to pay for Christmas holidays with probably a January national lockdown.”

Scottish Greens health spokesperson Alison Johnstone said: “It is very worrying that advisers to both governments have such concerns about relaxing the restrictions over Christmas. 

“The World Health Organisation advise that a virus is considered out of control when 5% of tests are positive. Yesterday, we were told that 8.6% of tests for COVID-19 were positive, so the last thing we need to be doing is sending out mixed signals. 

“This is obviously a balancing act, but we need to see the evidence. In order to make this decision, the First Minister must have been appraised of the likely increase in infections. Parliament and the people of Scotland deserve to know how many extra infections the Scottish Government is comfortable with.”

Writing in today’s The National, the First Minister urges Scotland “to be careful” when making plans for Christmas. 

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Please think carefully about whether you need to form a 'bubble'

She said:”The virus won’t be taking the day off and nor should we. So before you think about meeting up with friends and family, my advice is to think carefully about if you could celebrate within your own household, without travel or meeting others.

"You should also think about how you can use technology to reach out to people you miss, and whether you can meet outside for a Christmas walk, rather than gather indoors for a meal or around the tree.”

First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford said the governments had little choice but to act. 

He told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning: “Coronavirus has not gone away and although Christmas is a very special time and it was important to give people a sense that there was some modest relaxation, it’s still relaxation to be used carefully and responsibly.”

Drakeford described the agreement between the UK nations on Christmas as “about as good as we could make it”, and said it was clear the choice was not between full restrictions or no restrictions at all.

“Had we asked people simply to live with the current level of restrictions, there was a real risk that people simply wouldn’t be able to go along with that,” he said.