First Minister sets out dates to begin lifting lockdown
NNUMBER OF NEW CASES IN GREATER GLASGOW
94
ICOLA Sturgeon has confirmed that the planned easing of lockdown this weekend will go ahead. The First Minister said that the stay-at-home rule will be lifted on Friday and be replaced by a “stay local” rule for at least the next three weeks.
She confirmed the changes that are able to go ahead on Monday, including more retail opening up such as homeware and garden centres, with hairdressers and barbershops also able to open.
Sturgeon said: “We have made progress both in suppressing the virus and in vaccination, and therefore the changes I previously indicated will go ahead on April 2 and 5.
“The stay-at-home rule is being replaced by a requirement to stay local – while
Covid levels remain high in some areas, and while a lot of people remain unvaccinated, we do not want the virus to spread from areas with relatively high prevalence to areas with low rates of infection. That’s why the current travel restrictions, which prevent non-essential travel outside your local authority area, are really important.
“It will be easier to relax more restrictions in the future if case numbers remain under control, so when things open up slightly this weekend please continue to stick to the rules, and follow the advice and the instructions given by store staff to keep you and the other customers safe.”
Sturgeon stressed, however, that the Covid-19 virus was still circulating, with cases rising in other countries.
She said: “Look across Europe and we see many countries seeing a big rise in cases and pressure on health services. It is still too widespread and dangerous to open up fully. “But if the data permits, we hope to make more changes later in April.” The planning lifting of travel restrictions will go ahead on April 26. The First Minister expects that by then all over-50s and those in the top nine priority groups will have been offered a first dose of the vaccine. On April 26, Scotland would move to Level Three and would see more re-opening of retail and a partial re-opening of hospitality outdoors, along with an easing of some other outdoor gathering rules. Sturgeon added: “We don’t want big crowds at these stores, so although they open from Monday, think about whether you really need to visit on Monday or if you’re able to wait until later in the week. “We’re also seeing, and have seen over the past two or three months, progress in terms of the suppression of the virus. “We’re now averaging 539 new cases per day. That is a decline of more than three quarters since early January. The number of deaths from Covid has fallen even more sharply than that, which is likely to be an effect of the vaccination programme.
“The number of deaths is down by more than 80% in the past two months. As you can see from the figures we’ve been reporting in recent days, the number of people in hospital and receiving intensive care is also reducing.”
The latest statistics showed there were 411 new positive cases with 94 of them in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area. The worst-hit area was Lothian which recorded 109.
There were 250 people in hospital with Covid-19, which was nine fewer than the previous day
There were 23 people in intensive care, which was an increase of one on the day before.
Another 12 deaths were registered of patients who first tested positive over the previous 28 days. That takes the total number of deaths registered, under that measure, to 7596.
There will be another update of restrictions in three weeks.
We hope to make more changes later in April