FUNDAY MORNING
Beer gardens, restaurants & shops will reopen when Scotland’s lockdown eases next week
SCOTS are looking forward to a very happy Monday as beer gardens finally reopen, with six pals allowed to meet up for a much-needed drink.
Nicola Sturgeon confirmed yesterday that significant lockdown easing begins on April 26, with pub beer gardens permitted to sell alcohol – and pubs and restaurants allowed to serve food indoors.
Beauty salons, gyms and non-essential shops will also be able to reopen – as well as visitor attractions such as museums.
The First Minister confirmed the changes yesterday telling Scots: “Monday is a good, big day, a first step back to the life as we once knew it”
But she warned: “We still need to be careful. Covid is at much lower levels than it has been for a long time in Scotland but it is still circulating.”
There were two deaths the previous day and 178 new cases of Covid but hospital and intensive care numbers remain low and 2,750,052 people have now received their first vaccine.
Sturgeon said the improvement in containing the virus had allowed her to relax the rules.
From Monday, the whole country will move out of Level 4 into the less restrictive Level 3 and it is expected that everywhere will move into Level 2 on May 17.
This would allow people to meet up within each other’s houses again. Further moves to Level 1 and 0 should follow in June and Sturgeon said the country would be approaching “something much more like normality in July”.
She said: “From Monday, all shops which are still closed will be able to reopen and all close contact services, like beauty parlours, can reopen.
“It will be possible to collect takeaway food indoors rather than having to collect it from a hatch or a window and hospitality venues like cafes, pubs and restaurants can reopen too.
“In outdoor settings, opening hours will be determined by local licensing laws. Alcohol will be able to be served outdoors and people can meet up in groups of up to six people from six different households.
“The rules for hospitality indoors are different because the risk of transmission is greater indoors. Cafes, pubs and restaurants will be able to open until eight in the evening but will not yet be able to serve alcohol.
“Up to six people will be allowed to meet indoors but must come from a maximum of two households.” She insisted that despite some claims that the requirements for social distancing would be prohibitive, the rules had not changed since the easing after the first lockdown, with people from different households required to sit one metre apart.
And she hit out at “scaremongering” from some sections of the hospitality sector.
Sturgeon said: “Although indoor socialising is permitted in public places, albeit in limited numbers, in cafes, pubs and restaurants for example, it is not yet permitted in our own homes. I know that can seem illogical but we know the risk of transmission can be higher in the home than a cafe or bar because it is harder to stick to physical distancing and to ensure good ventilation.”
Tourist accommodation will also reopen from Monday but there remains a strict one household rule in self-catering accommodation.
Scots will be able to visit the islands but Sturgeon asked all those travelling to take two lateral flow tests before departure.
The borders to England, Northern Ireland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man will also open up on Monday. Last night, a spokesman
from the Scottish Beer and Pub Association said he welcomed the confirmation from the First Minister that “there are no tangible changes to how pubs reopened last year”.
He said: “This means that, as before, those from separate households must maintain a onemetre social distancing.
“We urge local authorities and enforcement officers to maintain a pragmatic approach to enforcement.
“It is important to understand that operators have put in a tremendous amount of work to make their premises Covid-secure and trust their customers to stick to the guidance.” Chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Dr Liz Cameron, said the announcement allowing more businesses to open was “great news”.
But she added: “The possible introduction of new measures such as the theoretical, untested, mathematical formula which small businesses are being asked to implement before reopening, possibly reducing their capacity even further, is simply bizarre.
“That is what businesses are being asked to do now and this will increase our costs and reduce trading opportunities.”