SLOW WAY OUT
Sturgeon’s ‘road map’ keeps us in lockdown for weeks (and we will STILL be in tiers come May)
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FAMILIES and businesses have been left in the dark about a return to greater normality after Nicola Sturgeon yesterday delivered a route map without hope.
Key coronavirus lockdown curbs, such as a ban on travel to other council areas, will remain in place indefinitely, while schools will not return to full normality until well into April at the earliest.
The First Minister’s long-awaited path out of lockdown also failed to set out when families will be able to reunite indoors and hug.
The first gradual easing of restrictions from the middle of next month will allow up to four people from two households to meet outdoors.
But the economy will not begin to reopen until the last week of April, when non-essential shops, gyms and hairdressers can return. Hospitality faces severely limited operating hours and a ban on the sale of alcohol.
Unlike the route map unveiled by Boris Johnson on Monday, Miss Sturgeon’s proposals do not put a date on a full return to normality.
Instead, they only show the path to the whole country entering Level 3 of the lockdown framework, potentially from April 26, when restrictions will still include a ban on non-essential travel outside of a council area and no visits to other private homes.
It comes despite Miss Sturgeon saying the vaccination programme is ‘motoring’, with a new target to get the jab to all priority groups by the middle of April and to all adults by the end of July.
Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives at Holyrood, said: ‘The success of the vaccine programme means it is now possible to start to have those important conversations with friends and family about reconnecting, about making plans and about getting all of our lives back on track.’
But she added: ‘There is nothing for the thousands of Scots who have had medical treatments, tests or operations cancelled about when and how services will get back up to speed; there is nothing for those who have already postponed huge life events like weddings for a year about when they can walk down the aisle in front of family and friends.
‘And there is nothing about when measures such as social distancing will end and we can do something as basic as give a loved one a hug.
‘There is nothing about what happens after April 26. This is not a route map out of Covid; it is a holding document for the next eight weeks. Everyone understands that we might not be able to give people absolute certainty, but they were expecting the First Minister to give them some kind of hope.’
Miss Sturgeon said she did not want to be giving ‘false assurance or picking arbitrary dates that have no grounding at this stage in any objective assessment’.
She added: ‘In mid-March – when we have made further progress on vaccines and have greater understanding of the impact of the initial phase of school return – I hope we can set out then more detail of the further reopening that will take place over April and May and into a summer when we hope to be living with much greater freedoms than we are today.’
Pupils in primary 1-3 returned to school earlier this week, while senior secondary pupils could attend to complete practical coursework. The next phase of the lockdown easing will take place on March 15, when other primary pupils can return, teenagers can take part in organised non-contact sport and four people from two households can meet outdoors.
At least three weeks later, from April 5, the stay at home order will come to an end, community worship can resume, up to six people from two households can meet outdoors and click and collect retail services can return.
But Miss Sturgeon warned that travel restrictions are ‘essential’ and ‘are likely to remain so for some time yet’.
She said that, ‘if all goes according to plan’, the whole country will move to Level 3 of the lockdown framework – the second-highest level of the Scottish five-tier system – in the last week of April.
But Miss Sturgeon insisted that the route map can be accelerated if supported by data.
She said: ‘I think everybody wants to be out of this sustainably so that, when we come to be looking at next winter, we are not contemplating another lockdown.’