Caution required before review of lockdown levels, says Sturgeon
Areas hoping to see a reduction in their level of Covid- 19 lockdown restrictions may not see changes quickly as being cautious continues to drive t he Scottish Government’s approach to measures, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Council areas are in levels one, two or three of the Scottish Government’s five - level system, but several areas are measuring data relating to indicators used to decide which levels they enter that are below their existing level.
Fife was also highlighted as a potential level of “concern” for the First Minister, but she said she would not “pre-em pt” any decisions which will be announced on Tuesday at the Scottish Parliament as part of the weekly review of the levels system.
Asked at her daily coronavirus briefing whether she was affecting people’ s mental health by not announcing potential level changes sooner, Ms Sturgeon said it was unlikely much would regularly change rapidly.
She said: “I am not trying to keep people on tenterhooks, I am trying to be straight with people.
"I also want us to have as stable a position as possible and not always be chopping and changing.
"We can’t rule out having to take decisions relatively quickly.
"This is a rapidly spreading virus if we allow it to be, but one of the purposes of the levels system was trying to get areas of the country onto levels and then give them a bit of time to work to get the infection down so that in time they can come down a level.
"That does mean t hat we will probably not chop and change parts of the country every week.”
Ms Sturgeon said the high level of prevalence of the virus meant that caution in reducing the level of restrictions faced by parts of the country was driving the Scottish Government’s decisionmaking.
She said :“If we go into winter with a high level of infection, even if it is as table high level of infection, any increase in the R number again, which may well happen because people in the winter are more likely to be in indoors environments, that increase in the R number will operate on a higher baseline and more quickly overwhelm it.
"That’s why we have to get the overall level of infection down more than it is just now and that will be a factor in the decisions we make over the next few days.
"That is not me signalling that we’re about to put the country into level four. We will take any decisions around that carefully.
"But it is probably me signalling that we have to be a bit cautious about too quickly moving too many parts of the country down the levels system and opening up the country too much, too quickly because then we run the risk on that high baseline of things taking off again.”
Ms Sturgeon will provide an update on which council areas sit in which levels on Tuesday.
Some more rural areas such as the Borders, East Lothian and Midlothian hope to move into level one.
It was also announced that Denmark has been added to Scotland’s travel quarantine list after human outbreaks of a coronavirus variant linked to mink farms.
Ms Sturgeon announced the decision at her daily briefing, just minutes before the order came into effect at 12.30.
It means anyone travelling to Scotland from Denmark will have to self- isolate for 14 days on arrival. Ms Sturgeon said: “Health authorities in Denmark have reported cases in humans of a variant strain of the virus associated with outbreaks in mink farms.
“We’ve taken this decision on a precautionary basis but it is important that we do so. The UK Government announced a similar move last night.
“The Danish authorities are working very hard to contain this situation but of course we will continue to consider whether there is a need for any further protections.
“The UK chief medical officers will consider updated information to assess whether any additional action beyond quarantine may be required.”
Scotland’ s chief medical officer Greg or Smith said: “The chief medical officers are clear that action is required to safeguard public health.
“If anyone has any concerns, whether or not they have travelled from Denmark, they should follow the guidance laid out by Scottish Government.”
The move comes after the Scottish Government announced on Thursday evening that arrivals from Sweden and Germany will be placed on the quarantine list from 4am today.
Ms Sturgeon said Scotland had recorded 31 deaths from coronavirus and 1,072 positive tests in the previous 24 hours.
The death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – has risen to 2,997.
The daily test positivity rate fell to 5.5 percent from 7.6 per cent on Thursday.
Of the new cases, 460 are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 210 in Lanarkshire ,112 in Lothian and 75 in Ayrshire and Arran. There are 1 , 237 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, down by 15 in 24 hours. Of these, 98 are in intensive care, up by three.