LOCKDOWN TO LIFT... FOR NOW!
Restrictions to ease but tiers will STILL apply to outbreaks
‘We are being rightly cautious’
Purple patch that’s a sign of brighter days
SCOTLAND could soon move out of lockdown as a whole, with a regional tier system used only to deal with coronavirus outbreaks.
The First Minister yesterday said she wanted to substantially ease the current restrictions in all areas of the mainland at the same time.
She will implement tighter measures only in council areas where flare-ups appear, meaning areas with lower rates of infection could hopefully ‘go faster’.
Nicola Sturgeon previously announced that she hopes to move Scotland back to a levels system from April 26 – with areas moving from lockdown to Level 3. This would allow non-essential retailers, gyms, cafes, bars and restaurants to open but with some measures remaining in place.
However, as the current lockdown combined with the vaccination programme fuels a drop in case numbers, Holyrood’s Covid committee yesterday pushed Miss Sturgeon on whether the easing of restrictions could go faster.
A further 691 coronavirus cases were recorded on Tuesday, representing 3.1 per cent of all new tests carried out – with 20 people dying from the virus. By 8.30am yesterday, a total of 1,809,158 Scots had received their first dose of the vaccine – some 40 per cent of the adult population.
When asked about her plans for not returning to the levels system until the end of April, Miss Sturgeon said coronavirus was still ‘circulating at levels that are too high for comfort’. However, she said: ‘I hope as we come out of lockdown measures initially, we can come out as one country.’
In the event of coronavirus outbreaks, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We can use the levels system to deal with that.’ She added: ‘It may very quickly be possible for some parts to go faster – I’m talking of island and rural communities perhaps in particular.’
Addressing MSPs, she warned that the new strain of the virus circulating in Scotland is ‘much more infectious’ than the initial coronavirus, adding: ‘We don’t have experience yet as to how far and fast that will spread when we start to lift restrictions.
‘So we are being, I think, rightly cautious to make sure as we start to lift these restrictions we have as much certainty as we will ever have in a situation like this, that we are not immediately going to be overtaken by the spread of the virus.’
She said that there are ‘parts of the country where prevalence is much lower than it is in other parts of the country’.
But she also said it was not yet known what impact the return of youngsters to school would have on transmission. She added: ‘We just need to be cautious. The last thing we want to do is go faster because we are all impatient to get back to normal and find that it sets us back.’
Miss Sturgeon warned the public that exit from lockdown may be slower than most people would like – and hinted overall steps will be taken over a longer period than previously suggested. Her comments came as the chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith, told the committee that Scotland was now in a ‘very different situation’ to the exit from lockdown last summer. He said: ‘The virus we are now dealing with is a completely different virus in many respects.
‘Before we take this very considered, measured approach in terms of how we begin to change the restrictions we have been living with, it is really important we don’t tip the balance in its favour again. And there is a very real risk that that will happen if we move too quickly.
‘It is right we take that little bit of extra care and attention.’