Tailored response to local lockdowns

Nicola Sturgeon said the Scottish Government’s individual tailored lockdown measures are why Glasgow is not facing an imminent local lockdown similar to the one seen in Aberdeen.

The First Minister said each outbreak of Covid-19 is dealt with on a separate basis with specific responses following the “specific causes and circumstances” linked to each lockdown.

Ms Sturgeon said that despite Glasgow recording 69 cases of Covid-19 in one day today, this was unlikely to lead to a local lockdown due to the nature of the outbreak.

Unlike in Aberdeen where the Scottish Government viewed the outbreak as out of control and requiring urgent action, the cases in Glasgow have been linked to several smaller clusters across the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area.

The First Minister said: “I think we have got to be increasingly careful about using lockdown as some kind of blanket term or one sized all approach.

“We have to take steps, if necessary, to deal with outbreaks and those steps have to be tailored to the specific causes and circumstances of outbreaks.

“If you think back over the last few weeks, in Aberdeen we had an outbreak that very definitely appeared to have started in and then spread within the nighttime economy, in pubs for example, and therefore what we had to do there was restrict hospitality.

“In Coupar Angus we had an outbreak with a large number of cases similar to the number of cases to Aberdeen but a very different outbreak in nature, it started in a workplace, in a factory, so the measure that was appropriate there was to advise isolation not only of the workers in that factory but also of their other household contacts.

“So far it looks like those measures there have had an effect just as measures in Aberdeen had an effect.”

Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government is trying to “tailor ” their response and said the same approaches will not necessarily be taken for each outbreak of the virus.

She said: “When we’re looking at other areas, whether and what measures we take will depend on the nature of the transmission and whether or not we think it is under control or potentially running out of control again and then try to tailor our response.

“We won’t see necessarily the same approaches being taken in every area.

“Take the example of Ayrshire and Arran right now, it appears from what we know right now that these are small clusters that haven’t started in hospitality but instead indoor household gatherings so that will obviously shape any response that we are trying to fashion to this.

“That will be the nature of the weeks and months that lie ahead, we will have to tailor that action as far as possible to meet the circumstances.

“All of that is encapsulated in the catch-all term lockdown and that lockdown increasingly means different things in different circumstances.”