THE ‘LOCAL LOCKDOWN’
Towns’ anger as they are still forced to keep 5-mile travel limit
TOUGHER lockdown measures will remain in place in the south of Scotland following a cluster of cross-Border cases.
A five-mile limit on travel will continue in a number of towns near England – despite the limit being scrapped in the rest of the country from today.
Locals yesterday expressed their shock at being put into an effective local lockdown and said the Scottish Government had ‘forgotten’ the area during the pandemic.
The move comes after ten positive cases of coronavirus were confirmed around Annan and Gretna, in Dumfriesshire, and in the North-West of England.
The initial case was a health worker at a Carlisle hospital, while testing of workers is also being carried out ‘as a precaution’ in two factories in the area – Alpha Solway, which manufactures personal protective equipment, and Young’s Seafood.
Nicola Sturgeon is ‘hopeful’ that the outbreak can be contained but she ‘cannot be absolutely sure’ it will be.
Miss Sturgeon said yesterday: ‘The advice and guidance to people in the areas of Annan, Gretna, Dumfries, Lockerbie, Langholm and Canonbie is to continue to follow the five-mile travel restriction over the weekend until the testing and contact-tracing process has been completed and we are able to assess if the outbreak has indeed been contained.’
She said that anyone who plans to travel into these areas over the weekend to visit or stay should then also stick to the five-mile travel advice.
The First Minister urged business owners to be extra vigilant on hygiene measures, including those at the Gretna Gateway Outlet Village, and said care homes in the area will be unable to accept visitors.
She said: ‘To people in these areas,
until we conclude the management of this outbreak, please assume there is a higher risk of infection just now and take particular care to follow all public health advice.
‘And remember, I’m sorry about this, the five-mile limit means you should not travel to pubs south of the Border this weekend.’
Professor Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government’s national clinical director, said it would ‘usually’ be the case that guidelines had not been adhered to for a cluster of this size to have been created. He said: ‘I understand it is no one person’s fault, and we don’t want blame, and we don’t want to be looking for people to blame. But if you disobey the guidelines, that is what happens.’ He said Young’s has ‘reassured’ the public and staff that the outbreak is not in the factory. He said there is no reason to worry about that factory – although he said he is ‘slightly cautious about that public messaging’ because food processing factories tend to be ‘good for this virus’.
Professor Leitch added: ‘The other factory is Alpha Solway, who make PPE for us and the rest of the UK... We have no reason to believe there is community transmission or factory transmission of this virus in either of these workplaces. But we are going to test them.’
Miss Sturgeon disagreed it was an ‘effective lockdown’ for the area, insisting it was only a ‘proportionate and targeted intervention’. She said: ‘If the travel restrictions for Scotland had been lifted two weeks ago there might have been a different judgment about whether we would need to reapply it in these areas. But it doesn’t feel right, right now, to be lifting it while we have these outbreaks under way.’
Elaine Murray, leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, said: ‘It’s vital that we adhere to the guidance this weekend, including that which remains in place in part of our region but has been relaxed elsewhere in Scotland. This outbreak reminds us that the virus is still circulating. We know it is in the community in Cumbria so it is essential that none of us travel to Carlisle for the reopening of the pubs this weekend.’
Alexander Thomson, chairman of the Gretna and Rigg community council, said the area had been ‘forgotten’ about during the pandemic. He said: ‘The people down here, we feel like we are the forgotten side of Scotland because we are that close to the Border.
‘They talk about the five-mile restriction, well there’s people that do jobs in Carlisle, which is about nine miles away – what are they going to do about that?
‘Our nearest big supermarket for shopping is Carlisle or Annan, which is nine miles again, so there goes the five-mile radius there.’
John Galloway, chairman of the Langholm, Ewes, and Westerkirk community council said the news was ‘very concerning’ to all who cross the Border for work, and to hospitality and retail businesses which ‘will now be faced with more uncertainty and damage to our already fragile economy’.
In a joint statement, local MP David Mundell and MSP Oliver Mundell said: ‘We believe the measures taken in the Annan/Gretna area and surrounding postcodes are proportionate and appropriate in light of the local outbreak.’
‘We feel like we are forgotten’