‘CAUTION WILL LEAD TO FASTER AND SAFER EXIT’
Lockdown measures could lift earlier than expected
THE First Minister believes a return to normal could happen sooner than previously thought – if the nation sticks to the current strategy.
Nicola Sturgeon – who is due to announce the next steps out of lockdown on Thursday – said we still need to exercise caution, as this is the quickest route to making positive changes.
She said: “The evidence suggests that the careful approach we have adopted so far is working.
“The lesson I take from that is that we should stick with that plan, not discard it.
“Because, and this of course is the much-harder bit, while transmission of the virus is much reduced the virus has not gone away yet.
“We still have a significant number of infected people in Scotland and we are still seeing new cases every day.
“The risk remains that if we move too quickly, and if we come into contact with too many people, cases of the virus could start to multiply again very quickly and we need to avoid that happening.”
The First Minister said that continuing with the plan is the best way to ensure lockdown measures do not need to be re-imposed in the future.
She pointed to increases in infection rates in England and in certain states in the US as a reason for continuing the cautious approach, to ensure measures do not have to be reapplied.
She revealed the latest daily update of coronavirus statistics.
It showed a total of 2447 patients have now died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by five from 2442 on Friday.
Another 25 new positive cases of coronavirus were recorded – taking the total since the outbreak began to 15,755.
There are 964 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a decrease of 19 in 24 hours.
Of these patients, 15 were in intensive care, down by five from the previous day.
In the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area there have now been 4010 positive cases reported since the pandemic hit Scotland in March. There are 255 people currently in hospital and the number in intensive care is below five.
The lockdown rules are to be reviewed on Thursday. If further changes are introduced in line with the Scottish Government plan it could mean some of the Phase Two measures coming into effect.
Phase Two includes the opening of smaller shops, people being able to meet other households indoors and some factories and other non-office indoor work places being allowed to reopen.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Tories said “a lack of robust measures” to stop travellers from other countries entering Scotland may have “accelerated the course of the outbreak”.
Jackson Carlaw, Scottish Tory leader, said: “The SNP government likes to think it has talked a very good game on this. But the fact is, mistakes were made right from the start, and they continue to this day.”
A spokesman for the First Minister said: “The Scottish Tories’ attempts to politicise this crisis get more desperate by the day but even by their standards Jackson Carlaw’s comments are bizarre.
“It is the UK Government and his Tory colleagues who are wholly responsible for controlling border policy so if his argument is that restrictions on travellers into the UK should have been introduced sooner, he should take it up with Boris Johnson.”