Covid contacts who refuse to self-isolate to be targeted
● Sturgeon promises to focus action on those who continue to ignore rules
Ni cola Sturgeon has promised to tackle those who refuse to follow rules on self-isolating as she warned against expecting a “return to normality” any time soon.
The First Minister said the “tiered” approach currently being devised for
Scotland would replace the current “temporary” restrictions, which are due to expire on 26 October.
These include the fort night-long closure of pubs and restaurants in central Scotland. “It is important to stress as I believe everyone already understands this point, that given the ongoing challenge of Covid, that will not herald a return to complete normality,” Ms Sturgeon told MSPS yesterday.
“The restrictions on household gathering, for example, remain in place until it is considered safe to ease them.
“More generally we intend to replace the temporary restrictions
with a new strategic approach to managing the pandemic.”
This will see different tiers or levels of alert for different areas "which may be applied in future or locally across Scotland depending on how the virus is spreading”.
The existing restrictions mean as well as pubs and restaurants having closed across central Scotland, outwith this area, pubs and restaurants can remain open until 6pm - but have been banned from serving alcohol.
“When we publish this new framework, which will then of course be subject to debate and decision by Parliament, we will indicate, based on the latest advice from the national incident management team and from our clinical advisors, what level of intervention should apply to each part of the country when the temporary restrictions end on 26 October,” Ms Sturgeon said.
She has already hinted that the tiered approach in Scotland could be strict er than that unveiled by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in England this week. South of the Border, every area is classified as being on medium, high or very high alert. But the UK'S chief medical officer Chris Whitty has already hinted that even the tier 3 restrictions may not be sufficient to halt the spread of the virus. The Scottish approach could see a tougher package of measures at the highest level 3, or even a fourth tier of heightened measures.
The First Minister added: “The tiered approach to intervention will clearly be a central part of the new strategic approach framework.
“However, I want to stress that the framework will go beyond that. It will also seek to strengthen and improve effectiveness of measures which we currently have in place, to strengthen our resilience to live with this virus for the period ahead.” This will include measures to improve compliance, particularly around rules on meeting up amid concerns that too many people in Scotland are not adhering on the ban on entering other households or the “rule of six”.
There will also be a“particular focus” on asking people to self-isolate when they are asked to do so by public health authorities, as well as setting out support for people on low incomes who face face an “especially harsh” impact from Covid-19 restrictions.
Opposition party leaders have now been invited to take parts in talks with Ms Sturgeon which will set out how the new strategic approach will operate, along Health Secretary Jeane Freeman and government scientific advisers.
Ms Sturgeon also told the Scottish Parliament yesterday that the Scottish Government is seriously considering a travel ban for people from high risk areas of England, Northern Ireland and Wales into Scotland. The First Minister publicly backed yesterday’s move by the first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, to introduce across-border travel ban on people in highrisk parts of England travelling into Wales. Mr Drakeford had said the decision by Mr Johnson not to introduce travel restrictions was “undermining” the Welsh effort to tackle Covid-19, a position Ms Sturgeon said she backed.
She has also written to Mr Johnson about travel and has called for a four nations Cobra meeting on what further restrictions could be introduced across all four nations.
Addressing Holy rood, Ms Sturgeon said: “Although we have put in place tough measures, we cannot rule out having to go further in future
“For example, the approach to travel being adopted by the Welsh government to mi tigate spread of the virus from high to low prevalence areas not just within each of the four UK nations, but also where necessary between the four UK nations, needs to be considered here too and is being considered here.”
Yesterday she said on Twitter: “These are public health decisions, and nothing to do with constitutional or political debates. @scotgov will also take whatever action we consider necessary.”
Meanwhile, half the population of England will be under stricter Tier 2 and Tier 3 lockdown measures from tomorrow despite concerns in Whitehall that the measures maybe“frankly useless” in controlling the spread of coronavirus.
London will move into Tier 2 of the alert system, banning people from separate house - holds mixing indoors, including in pubs and restaurants. Essex, Elmbridge, Barrow-inFurness, York, North East Derbyshire, Erewash and Chesterfield will also move into the second tier of measures.
But a bitter political row between local politicians and the government has so far prevented Greater Manchester being moved into Tier 3, the most severe restrictions.
Senior figures advising the government have expressed concern about the impact the existing measures will have. One senior source said if a circuit-breaker had been intro - duced earlier as cases were just starting to go up, it could have knocked the numbers down to levels seen in the summer. Another said many existing measures are “frankly useless” and will not be enough in places where cases are rising fast. Mr Hancock appealed to local government leaders to set aside political differences and work with the government to control the virus.
The ban on households mixing indoors could be devastating for more than 5,000 pubs and almost 8,500 restaurants in the newly-designated Tier 2 regions, which will see business suffer but will not be eligible for Government support available to premises which have been ordered to close.