The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Five-mile limit will not apply to family visits
Sturgeon urges people to use judgment and warns that some Scots may not see their grandchildren for ‘many months’
Nicola Sturgeon said people can travel beyond their local area to visit family from next week, but must use their judgment on whether it is safe to do so.
She also acknowledged that “one of the most distressing” aspects of lockdown has been the need to keep families apart, as it was revealed some grandparents may not be able see their grandchildren for “many months”.
Looking ahead to the easing of lockdown restrictions from Thursday, the first minister emphasised that people must stay outside when visiting and warned that going to the bathroom could spread the coronavirus.
Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government’s official guidance recommending people stay within five miles of their home for leisure and exercise would not apply to family visits.
She also clarified that the guidance does not limit families to meetings with just one other household.
“You can see different households, but we are asking you only to meet one at a time,” Ms Sturgeon said.
With the bank holiday weekend under way, the first minister urged the public to stick with the Stay At Home message, reminding them the lockdown will not be eased until Thursday.
“Taking the foot off the brake” over the weekend could jeopardise chances of restrictions being relaxed next week.
At her daily coronavirus briefing she sought to answer some questions that have been raised since the publication of the Scottish Government’s route map out of lockdown earlier this week.
The first minister also announced a further 24 deaths of people who had tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the total under that measurement to 2,245.
A total of 14,969 cases have been confirmed in Scotland, an increase of 113 from the day before, and a total of 1,257 patients were in hospital with the virus.
The Scottish lockdown exit strategy will involve the introduction of the first of four gradual phases next Thursday.
After that date people will be allowed to meet other households as long it is one at a time, outdoors, while observing physical distancing.
Golf, bowls, tennis, fishing, hiking and canoeing will be allowed and outdoor work such as forestry and agriculture will resume.
The 45-page document, detailing the strategy, also contained the five-mile recommendation.
Ms Sturgeon said: “We are not intending to put a five-mile limit on the distance you can travel to, for example, sit with your parents in their garden, but we are asking you to use judgment.
“If, for example, you travel a long distance to see a relative outside, you’ll be more likely to go inside the house to use the bathroom.
“We don’t want you to go inside others’ houses in this phase because if you are infectious, maybe without knowing it, you risk leaving the virus on surfaces inside the house and that would pose a risk to other people, particularly if you’re visiting elderly relatives. That is a risk we don’t want you to take.”
The route map sets out how childcare provision will be fully reopened as the country enters its third phase of easing restrictions, likely some time in August.
It makes no reference to families who rely on grandparents for childcare, and appears to suggest that a requirement for family members in other households to maintain a two-metre distance may not be lifted until phase four.
It means the fourth phase, which the plan describes as “many months” away, could be the first time grandparents of very young children are able to visit them in person.
The first minister was asked what she would say to the grandparents of young children for whom physical distancing is unlikely to be possible for the duration of the lockdown measures.
She said: “One of the most distressing aspects – and I’ve seen the impact of that in my own parents – is not being able to be with grandchildren.
“I don’t want that to continue for any longer than possible and we will try to run through these phases as quickly as we can, as quickly as the evidence allows.
“But I come back to the central point here – older people are most at risk from this virus; 90% of people who have died in Scotland of this virus have been over-65. That, I’m afraid, is just the brutal fact at the heart of this.”