Coronavirus latest
Greater Glasgow area facing threat of more restrictions if number of cases keeps rising
LOCKDOWN restrictions on more than 800,000 Scots may need to be tightened further in the coming days if infection rates continue to grow, senior politicians have admitted.
Schools may need to close and businesses could be shut down if infection rates continue to rise in Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.
It comes as health officials last night confirmed they have found evidence of coronavirus spreading in two schools in Glasgow.
People living in the three council areas have already been told to stay out of each other’s homes following a spike in cases linked to indoor meetings between families.
The leader of Glasgow City Council has warned that schools or businesses may need to be closed if infection rates continue to rise. Susan Aitken described the restrictions introduced yesterday – which also mean only ‘essential’ care home and hospital visits can take place – as a ‘first step’.
Last night, the Scottish Government also confirmed that plans to use a Rangers home game next weekend as a ‘test match’ for the return of spectators will not be allowed to go ahead while restrictions are in place in Glasgow.
A further 86 cases of the virus were confirmed in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area yesterday, out of 156 across the country.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Miss Aitken said it was ‘disappointing’ that restrictions had to be introduced in Glasgow but said the incidence rate is more than double the national average and ‘action has to be taken’.
She added: ‘What is particularly important about this action, which is limited restrictions – we are not having to go to the stage of closing businesses or schools, which we absolutely want to avoid – is that this is early intervention.
‘It is the Government, the public health agencies and the councils responding as soon as we have notice that we have a problem.’
She said that the evidence indicates that transmission of the virus is taking place ‘between households’ and added: ‘I do hope that we don’t have to get to the point where we are closing businesses and I definitely hope we don’t have to get to the point where we are closing schools.’
Pressed on whether that is a possibility if numbers do not stop climbing, she said: ‘Of course it is possible, yes. This is a first step. It will be reviewed in a week and the review in a week will be to see if any additional new restrictions are required.
‘It will be at least a fortnight before we step forward again out of these restrictions.
‘But it will be reviewed in a week and we will be able to see at that point what the impact of these limited new restrictions have been on the numbers and at that point we will have to make a decision, the public health authorities will have to make a decision, about whether we require any new restrictions or additional restrictions or not.
‘I absolutely hope that we do not get to that point and that’s why I would really urge everyone in Glasgow please, please, follow the new guidelines because none of us want to have to take another step backwards.’
The restrictions affect more than 800,000 people, including 633,120 living in Glasgow, 95,530 in East Renfrewshire and 88,930 in West Dunbartonshire.
They were announced on Tuesday when the number of new positive cases in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area increased to 66. This then rose by a further 86 cases in the 24 hours to yesterday morning.
Another 26 positive cases were confirmed in Lanarkshire, 16 in Lothian, and six in Ayrshire and Arran – with the remaining 22 new cases confirmed yesterday spread across six other health board areas.
The figures add to fears that the virus is spreading again across the country. Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, said the announcement was a bitter blow to care homes in the affected areas.
He told BBC Scotland’s The Nine: ‘Unfortunately it is the selfish behaviour and attitude of a few which have meant that some of our most vulnerable citizens have been prevented from meeting their families. I am extremely disappointed that there will be hundreds of families not able to visit each other indoors in the next week or so.’
At Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon said doing nothing was ‘not an option’ because of the toll the virus can take.
She said: ‘Those restrictions will be in place for two weeks, and will be reviewed in one week. They have not been put in place lightly.
‘They are necessary and, we believe, proportionate, and we hope that they will allow the spread to be contained at an early stage, without the need for further measures later.’ Asked if schools in the
‘Take another step backwards’
three council areas may need to close, a spokesman for the First Minister said: ‘There’s no plan to close schools.
‘But when you’re dealing with a potentially deadly virus in the middle of a global pandemic then by definition almost you can’t predict what is going to happen.
‘But we would hope the measures that the First Minister announced are going to be sufficient to get the exceptional level of the current outbreak under control and driven down to a much lower level, as happened with the other outbreaks.
That’s the whole point of doing this – to get it down to a level where further restrictions aren’t necessary. But obviously we have to wait to see where the numbers go.’