RULES ON TRAVEL TO BE MADE STRICTER
THE Scottish Government is looking at quarantine hotels for international travel to prevent new variants of Covid being brought to Scotland.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said ministers were waiting for an announcement from the UK Government, but that Scotland was prepared to go further on quarantine if necessary.
He gave the update on travel as he announced that there would be no changes to the current lockdown restrictions, which will be in place until at least the middle of February.
Swinney said quarantine hotels would be considered and that international travel restrictions were necessary.
He said: “Travel restrictions will also play an important part in keeping the virus under controlby reducing the risk of new cases, and new variants, being imported.”
He said there has been talks with the UK Government on quarantine hotels.
Speaking yesterday, he added: “We have not yet been sighted on what the UK Government intends to announce or when it intends to announce it. I understand that decision has been deferred to this evening.”
Swinney said border controls will work best on a four-nation basis, adding: “Otherwise, for example if Scotland establishes a supervised quarantine regime, and England does not, that could be problematic if unrestricted travel between Scotland and England resumes.
“The Scottish Government believes that a comprehensive system of supervised quarantine is required. And so I can confirm that the Scottish Government will initially go at least as far as any UK Government announcement in enhancing quarantine arrangements, including through the use of hotels.
“However if these UK restrictions are at a minimal level, we will look at other controls we can announce – including additional supervised quarantine measures – that can further protect us from importation of the virus, and we will set those out next week.”
Swinney said the decision not to change lockdown means there are no changes to education and schools yet.
He said:
“Online learning for school pupils will continue to be the default position. We will provide a further update on education arrangements next week.”
The latest statistics showed the total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 1049.
There were 2010 people in in hospital, down by six. There were 149 people in intensive care, down by two, and another 87 deaths were registered, taking the total to 5796.
Swinney said that by yesterday morning 437,900 people had received a first dose of the vaccine including 51% of 80-year-olds living in the community.