The idea of a normal Christmas this year with large family gatherings is “fiction” and people should be “digital-Christmas ready”, Nicola Sturgeon’s public health adviser has said. Jason Leitch, the Scottish government’s national clinical director, who regularly flanks Sturgeon in her daily coronavirus briefings, told BBC Radio Scotland it was too early to say what the situation would be in late December. But Christmas would “absolutely” not be normal. “I’m worried firstly about Halloween and 5 November, and then we may turn our minds to Christmas. I’m hopeful [imposing restrictions] now may get us a more normal family Christmas but Christmas is not going to be normal,” he said. “There’s absolutely no question about that. “We’re not going to be in large family groupings with multiple families coming round. That is fiction for this year, but I’m hopeful if we can get the numbers down to a certain level we may be able to get some form of normality but people should get their digital Christmas ready.” Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, was scathing about Leitch’s remarks, as a clearly discomforted Sturgeon urged people during her daily briefing not to dwell on her adviser’s phrase about planning for a “digital Christmas”. Leonard tweeted that Leitch seemed oblivious to the poverty many Scots lived under, saying: “Tone deaf statement from the national clinical director. Thousands of Scots struggling & face a miserable Dickensian Christmas after months of lockdown. Not everyone has unlimited digital access. The real “fiction” is @Scotgov is handling the pandemic well.” Sturgeon also suggested that children should avoid going guising, or trick or treating, during Halloween this year because it was unsafe for people to have unnecessary contact with others. She said the Scottish government was issuing guidance for Halloween over the weekend, and urged families to devise different ways of celebrating. “It’s not safe right now to do these things as normal. It wouldn’t be fair of me or right of me to say otherwise,” she said. “To parents, to children: think of ways you can celebrate in a way that’s safe and doesn’t have children or others coming into unnecessary contact with others.” Sturgeon also backed up Leitch’s warnings about Christmas being abnormal this year, but said the intensity of any controls in force in December rested largely on how well people observed the current restrictions, suppressing the spread of the virus. “I’m not going to stand here and give people false assurances I can’t deliver,” she said. “It does depend on people doing the right thing now, so by Christmas we can ease up a bit.” The first minister will unveil Scotland’s five-tier Covid-19 alert system on Friday. Leitch confirmed that it would a very tough top tier, which would be similar to a full lockdown. He said ministers and their health advisers were still working out which council areas would be put in which tier. Family gatherings indoors are currently banned in Scotland. Pubs and restaurants across central Scotland are closed, and people are urged not to travel except if essential or for work, as part of “circuit breaker”-style controls introduced for cities including Edinburgh and Glasgow, which affect about 3.4 million people. Leitch and Sturgeon have said similar controls would continue to be in force, to varying degrees, in coming months. To the alarm of hospitality businesses, Sturgeon announced on Wednesday that the central Scotland restrictions would remain for a third week until the new multi-tier system comes into force on Monday 2 November. Scotland has, like many other parts of the UK and Europe, recorded a surge in cases during October. It passed the 50,000 infections mark on Wednesday and had the highest number of daily deaths since late May, with 28 deaths of people who had tested positive for Covid-19. Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, said Leitch’s warnings showed the Scottish government had failed to control the virus. “People have made huge sacrifices for months on end, they will be devastated to hear that Christmas as they know it is cancelled this year. Many will rightly question whether the government have used the past six months as well as they could have to expand testing, shore up our NHS and prepare for a second wave. “If the government expects months more of sacrifices it needs to be honest with the public. Nicola Sturgeon must release the data and projections underpinning these proposals and allow the public to debate them openly.”