1m distance is ‘possible’... for some
THE two-metre social distancing rule may be dropped in some places, Nicola Sturgeon suggested yesterday.
The First Minister is under growing pressure to scrap physical distancing, or reduce it to one metre, amid fears it will spark mass job losses.
Yesterday, Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles highlighted that the World Health Organisation recommends a minimum distance of only one metre, and said: ‘The present distance will risk both lives and livelihoods if there is no plan to move to one metre at some point, as we move towards coming out of lockdown.’
Miss Sturgeon said she does not have a ‘fixation’ with any particular distance but wants to keep people safe in a way that is conducive to ‘getting the economy moving again’.
She added: ‘Yes, there is a consideration, an ongoing consideration, of are there circumstances, are there particular settings, are there particular mitigations that could make something like that possible. I am not closed minded to that but I will not be pushed into doing it in a way that looks at that issue in isolation or does it in a way that’s unsafe.’
Miss Sturgeon also warned that some of the ‘economic locations’ which may benefit most from changing the social distancing rule ‘are also some of the locations that evidence are telling us are more high risk transmission areas’.
A survey by the Scottish Beer and Pub Association found that 53 per cent of staff will be made redundant if the two-metre rule remains in place – which amounts to 23,648 jobs. Only 13 per cent of respondents believe it is financially viable to open with the two-metre rule in force.
Miss Sturgeon will unveil the next steps out of lockdown – phase two – at Holyrood today.
Ahead of announcing her plans, she told Capital Scotland: ‘I don’t think we’re going to immediately see a lifting of the advice to people to stay quite local for leisure and recreation.
‘But of course you can travel longer than that right now to see family. Up until now we’ve been saying to people – and I would imagine this will continue – to stay outdoors if you see people in another household.’
Meanwhile, it was confirmed yesterday that 1,239 people have been told to self-isolate for a fortnight since the launch of the Test and Protect scheme. Between May 28 and last Sunday, 992 people tested positive and contact tracing was completed for 891 of them.