Brighter days ahead as lockdown restrictions ease

Monklands residents will see the lockdown “stay at home” rule lifted next Friday, while hairdressers and garden centres are set to reopen on April 5– and a “significant” easing of lockdown including the reopening of all shops plus some outdoor hospitality is planned from April 26.

North Lanarkshire, along with the rest of mainland Scotland, is then expected to move back down into level three coronavirus restrictions on that same date at the end of next month for the first time since Boxing Day.

April 26 is also expected to see the resumption of individual exercise in indoor gyms, driving lessons, work in people’s homes, the reopening of libraries and museums and allowing up to 50 people to attend funerals and weddings.

It is then hoped to resume indoor hospitality on May 17, along with the reopening of bingo halls, cinemas, and amusement arcades – and“if not possible before then”, potentially allowing indoor meetings of up to four people from two households.

The latter would represent the first time Lanarkshire residents have been allowed inside other people’s homes since September 2020, when localised restrictions were first put in place in response to rising infections as the second wave of coronavirus took hold.

The phased opening of nonessential retail including homeware stores, car showrooms and garden centres is planned for Easter Monday, April 5, along with the reopening of hairdressers and barbers for the first time this year.

Contact sports for teenagers and the return of more students to on-campus college learning will also be allowed from the same date.

Cafes, restaurants and bars can open outdoor areas until 10pm from April 26 – allowing Monklands’ venues to welcome customers for the first time this year, while many pubs have been continuously closed since October.

The current rules preventing Monklands residents travelling outside North Lanarkshire are expected to end on the same date, with travel across Scotland’s mainland set to be allowed at that time when all areas currently in the toughest level-four restrictions move down.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also noted that it is hoped that travel to other parts of the UK might also be allowed at that time, with further updates to be issued throughout next month, but that non-essential international travel will not be possible before May 17 and potentially still “not for a period after that”.

Outdoor socialising rules are set to allow six people from three households to meet outdoors from April 26, and the First Minister said: “Given that the risk of transmission is greatest inside our own homes, we cannot yet say if it will be possible to have people from other households visit from this date, but we do intend to keep this under ongoing review.

“All of us yearn to meet with friends and loved ones indoors again, especially people who live alone, and we will seek to restore as much normality as possible as soon as it’s safe to do so.”