Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, has bluntly told people not to hug and kiss elderly relatives at Christmas. Only 48 hour after the government announced a temporary relaxation of rules intended to allow families to mix at Christmas, Whitty highlighted the risks, saying people should not hug elderly relatives “if you want them to survive to be hugged again”. Speaking at a No 10 press conference, he said: Would I want someone to see their family? Of course, that’s what Christmas is about, whether people celebrate Christmas as a festival themselves or from any other belief system. It is an opportunity for families. But would I encourage someone to hug and kiss their elderly relatives? No, I would not. It is not against the law - and that’s the whole point. You can do it in the rules that are there but it does not make sense because you could be carrying the virus and if you’ve got an elderly relative, that would not be the thing you want to do in the period where we’re running up to a point where we might be able to protect older people. Boris Johnson has said that mass testing could allow individuals to escape particular restrictions - even if they are living in a tier 3 area. In his latest upbeat statement about the possibilities offered by mass testing (once described by No 10 as the Moonshot plan), Johnson told the press conference. If [mass testing] works, where people test negative, it may also be possible for families and communities to be released from certain restrictions even if their home area stays in tier 3. Johnson has defended the government’s decision to place large parts of England under tougher restrictions once the lockdown ends than they were under when it started, saying “taking our foot off the throat of the beast” now would be a mistake. He told the press conference. What we want to avoid is relaxing now too much, taking our foot off the throat of the beast now, when we’ve got [the virus] in a much, much better place than it was before the rules and measures. Johnson is facing a backlash from Tory MPs ahead of next week’s Commons vote on the new post-lockdown restrictions announced for England today. Some of his MPs have already said they will vote against the government, but many more have expressed anger or disappointment about finding their constituencies unexpectedly in tier 3 or tier 2. Some are demanding the publication of better evidence from the government to justify the restrictions before deciding how they will vote. At his press conference Johnson said the allocation of tiers would be reviewed every fortnight. But in the Commons, in an attempt to mollify his Tory critics, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said that, after the first review on 16 December, the system would be reviewed at least weekly. He told one MP: We will review the tiers in a fortnight and then regularly, which he can reasonably take to be weekly. And Hancock told another MP he was committing to regular reviews, rather than weekly ones, “simply because we sometimes have to do it more than weekly, especially if cases are shooting up in an area.” Coronavirus infections are largely levelling off in England although prevalence remains high, the latest data suggests. The Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine is coming under increasing scrutiny, with critics questioning the claim that trials showed it could protect up to 90% of people against coronavirus. The pub companies Mitchells & Butlers and Fuller, Smith & Turner have reported heavy losses and said they had axed about 1,700 jobs, highlighting the impact of continued coronavirus restrictions on Britain’s hospitality sector. Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, has decided legislation is required to cut the aid budget since the current fiscal uncertainty means the government may feel obliged to miss the commitment to spend 0.7% on gross national income on overseas aid for longer than a year. That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.