Aberdeen to remain in lockdown as Covid cases increase to 398
Restrictions imposed on Aberdeen to contain an outbreak of Covid-19 will not be lifted until Sunday at the earliest, the First Minister has said.
Nicola Sturgeon confirmed the extension of the renewed lockdown measures for the city, despite opposition from Aberdeen City Council, which said it did not support the ruling.
The decision means indoor gatherings between households, the five-mile travel limit and the closure of all outdoor and indoor hospitality will be extended.
It came as the number of cases in NHS Grampian yesterday rose to 15, meaning a total of 398 cases of Covid-19 in the area, of which 226 are linked to the original outbreak in pubs.
The Scottish Government will review the decision in its first “mid-week” assessment of the restrictions, the results of which will be announced on Sunday.
Ms Sturgeon said the decision had been made because it was “not yet safe” to reopen the city and warned that restrictions could be lifted at a slow pace rather than all at once, with lower risk premises such as non-licensed cafes high on the list of potential businesses that could reopen.
At the daily coronavirus briefing, the First Minister said she was not “in a position to say that this outbreak is over or completely under control”.
She added that, while there was evidence that the initial cluster is being contained, a number of individual cases and other smaller clusters in the city needed to be “monitored carefully”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “It is really important that at this stage in the pandemic that we continue to take a precautionary approach.
“Our hope is that by sticking with these restrictions for a little bit longer and ensuring that this outbreak is firmly under control, both the cluster and the more sporadic cases that we have been seeing in Aberdeen, we can avoid further more severe restrictions in the future.”
She announced a £1 million fund for businesses in Aberdeen, mainly to support hospitality businesses that have been forced to shut due to the new restrictions. The fund will provide grants of up to £1,500.
Ms Sturgeon said she accepted that the restrictions have been “exceptionally tough” for everybody in Aberdeen.
The council’s co-leader Jenny Laing said she and the coalition of Conservative, Labour and independent councillors running Aberdeen did not support the decision to keep it under lockdown.
She said: “It is apparent that Covid-19 has already had a significant impact on our local economy and continuing with the current restrictions is only going to make a bad economic decision worse.”
Ms Sturgeon also rejected suggestions Scotland was experiencing a second wave of coronavirus after cases rose from two a day in early July to 50 a day recorded on Wednesday. She believed the rise was due to the lifting of restrictions.
She added: “I think what we’re seeing is a spike in the first wave.
“I think the scientific opinion is still out on whether this is a virus that will, like flu, follow a seasonal pattern so that in the autumn or winter we’ll see a seasonal surge that may be what you would describe as a second wave or whether this is a virus that will simply consist of one long wave that will go up and down depending on the restrictions and compliance with the advice that we’re giving.”
Interim chief medical officer Gregor Smith said categorically that there is no second wave.
He said: “We’re not experiencing a second wave at this time. In fact there’s many epidemiologists and public health experts who don’t even agree with the terminology that’s used there. We do need to understand why the numbers have risen.”