Christmas is a time to meet up with family, friends and colleagues, to enjoy some special, well-deserved moments together. It is a time for perfect COVID clusters.

Family and friends are invited to each other’s homes, meals become elaborate, crowded affairs, employers host all their employees to receptions, people attend alcohol-fuelled parties, the religious flock to churches, shoppers flood the streets and New Year ends it all with one big bash.

This year, however, things are painfully different. COVID-19 has transformed our work, social and private lives to a degree probably not seen since World War II.

After months of social distancing and often self-imposed restrictions on where we go and whom we meet, the temptation is to let our guard down – just this once – and enjoy ourselves in the company of those we hold dear.  That temptation should be resisted if we really do care for those people. The message from the superintendent of public health, Charmaine Gauci, was clear when she briefed parliament’s family affairs committee last Wednesday: Christmas celebrations should be restricted to the immediate household, office get-togethers should not be held and parties are out of bounds.

July taught us a simple lesson. When we thought we had beaten the virus, we were wrong. When we thought we could return to normality, we paid a high price.

The number of people who have died as a consequence of that period of relaxation has soared and will continue to increase. The number of previously healthy people presenting with serious chronic illness from COVID-19 is also on the rise. And the risk of business closures and job losses is probably greater now than if tight social restrictions had been maintained throughout the summer.

Projections of infection rates and future deaths are based on conformity with current restrictions and recommendations. Easing up on them would change the picture dramatically.

This has been demonstrated time and again in other countries where health advice was ignored and a national holiday celebrated in the traditional way. The US is expecting a surge upon surge of cases and hospitalisations following last week’s Thanksgiving holiday. We should learn from those experiences.

Many may deem the idea of foregoing the festive celebrations as one sacrifice too far. Let them be reminded: the biggest cluster of transmission is family members and, the second, contact with workplace colleagues. Another major source of spread is bars, which create an environment of close contact and drinking similar to parties.

Let us also remember that many of the very people we deem heroes in this crisis – the medical frontliners and other healthcare workers, the inspectors, the police, members of the armed forces – are giving up their Christmas so that we may all safely enjoy ours.

Society owes them a debt. We can start to repay it by ensuring that, come January, the island does not experience an even greater wave of infection and social disruption as a consequence of letting go for a few days over Christmas.

By all accounts, several effective vaccines against COVID-19 will soon be available. They offer promise of a possible return to something resembling normality in the spring, the season of new life.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. But we need to navigate that tunnel safely to get to the end of it.

There will be other Christmases. We must do our utmost to ensure that we and our loved ones will be around to celebrate them.