Face coverings could be compulsory if Scots do not start wearing them
Nicola Sturgeon has said face coverings could become compulsory if more Scots do not start wearing them.
The First Minister conceded while items such as face masks are “not the most comfortable things to wear”, she said they do provide additional protection against the spread of Covid-19.
She said if “we don’t see the voluntary use of them getting to the levels we think are necessary” then it could be enforced.
“Just as we have done on public transport, we will go down the road of making them mandatory because we do think there is a benefit from them,” she said.
Wearing face coverings on public transport became mandatory in Scotland from Monday. With some non-essential shops due to open from next Monday, Ms Sturgeon stressed the “strong advice” is to wear a face covering in enclosed spaces.
“They’re not the most comfortable things to wear, people are not particularly used to doing it and there will be a whole variety of reasons why people prefer not to,” she said.
“But the strong advice is to do so in enclosed spaces.”
The First Minister said: “I would encourage people to wear them right now if they are going shopping, and obviously as shops open more generally from Monday this becomes more important.
“Wearing one protects other people and having other people wear them protects you.”
She described wearing face coverings as “an additional thing we can do right now”, adding doing so had been less important previously when people were “all by and large staying at home”.
She said: “As we start to go out more, even though the virus is at lower levels, our risks are increased because we are exposed to more people, that is when these things are more important.
“So even if you haven’t been doing it up until now, I would urge you to do it now for the additional protection, because everything we do in this phase is about trying to mitigate and reduce the risk. The more we do that with a collection of measures the more chance we have got of stopping this virus.”