PARTY’S OVER
800,000 told no visitors allowed for the next two weeks
ONE in six Scots has been banned from visiting other households.
Nicola Sturgeon ordered the virus crackdown in a bid to stem a Covid surge in Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.
The reintroduced rules affect more than 800,000 people.
The First Minister said: “You should not visit someone else’s home – no matter where that is.”
MORE than 800,000 people in the west of Scotland were last night hit by a partial lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Those living in the city of Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire are now banned from visiting or hosting people from other households for the next two weeks.
The measures kicked in at midnight after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the restrictions as 66 new positive tests were recorded in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.
It is estimated restrictions will affect one in six people in Scotland – 633,120 in Glasgow, 95,530 in East Renfrewshire and 88,930 in West Dunbartonshire.
They lockdown will be reviewed after a week and the First Minister warned further measures could be applied if the situation does not improve.
Schools in the three council areas will stay open as will shops, pubs and restaurants.
Sturgeon and her advisers moved quickly after figures showed a three-month high with a 154 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours on Monday.
At an impromptu 6pm press conference which followed a resilience meeting with health, councils and police, Sturgeon announced the lockdown.
She said: “If you live in local authority areas of East Renfrewshire, the city of Glasgow or West Dunbartonshire you should not host people from other households in your home and you should not visit someone else’s home – no matter where that is.”
In addition to emergency circumstances or providing care to a vulnerable person, exceptions were granted for extended households established during lockdown.
This includes people who live alone, couples who do not reside together and parents who live alone with children under 18.
The First Minister said the transmission of the virus in the affected areas appeared mainly to be happening inside people’s homes and between households, rather than in pubs and restaurants as was the case in the Aberdeen outbreak.
When the local lockdown was imposed in Aberdeen last month it was triggered 14 cases per 100,000 population.
The daily incidence rate of Covid-19 is now almost 33 new cases per 100,000 people in West Dunbartonshire, 22 in Glasgow and almost 19 in East Renfrewshire. The rate for the rest of Scotland is just over 10.
Sturgeon added: “Over the past two days, we have seen 314 new cases in Scotland and 135 of these in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.
“If these numbers continue or, and this is the fear, they rise further, then more people will fall ill from Covid-19 and more people will enter hospital and intensive care.”
Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP for West Dunbartonshire, said she had made a plea for a mobile testing unit to be located in Dumbarton immediately.
She said: “Our area has been particularly badly hit by Covid-19 and while we are through the worst of it, we are not yet in the clear.”
On Monday, 160 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Scotland, the highest since May.
Government figures also reported provisional figures from Friday indicating that 22,821 pupils were absent either for all or part of the school day for coronavirus-related reasons.
Six people are in intensive care across Scotland with a confirmed case of Covid-19 and 264 people are in hospital.