Area to stay in Level 2

Renfrewshire will not be plunged into Level 3 restrictions, despite the number of new covid cases rocketing in recent days.

Since Monday, the local authority area has seen the number of new cases treble in two weeks.

On Wednesday alone, 58 people were identified as having the virus.

But, in a nationwide briefing yesterday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Renfrewshire would not be hit with harsher restrictions.

The cases are, she said, confined to specific clusters and are not giving public

health officials the same concerns as Glasgow.

The city will, for now, she explained, retain its Level 3 status.

Ms Sturgeon said: “We have also considered in recent days whether we need to step up restrictions in some other areas with relatively high levels of new cases, in particular Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Clackmannanshire.

“All of these areas, however, have low absolute numbers of cases.

“They have relatively low populations and public health teams there consider that the outbreaks are being controlled in other ways.”

She added: “In Renfrewshire, for example, where we have seem a rise in cases in recent days, the outbreaks are all tightly clustered.

“So Renfrewshire, like Clackmannanshire and East Renfrewshire, will remain in Level 2 for now and obviously we will update - in common with the rest of the country - what will happen next week.”

Cases have risen across Scotland in the past week - something the First Minister attributed to the easing of restrictions and increased testing.

She has urged people to continue to abide by the rules in their local authority area, arguing that this will help Scotland move to Level 1, which is due to come into effect across the country on June 7.

Ms Sturgeon said she would update the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday and make a Glasgow- specific announcement no later than Wednesday.

She added: “Regardless of where you live in the country, we all have a part to play either in getting covid outbreaks under control where there are outbreaks, or in other parts of the country keeping the number of cases low.

“That has been true for more than a year now and it remains the case.”

She also urged people to continue to get vaccinated, reminding everyone that it is the most important route to normality.

To date, 105,290 people have received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Renfrewshire.

That accounts for 72.5 per cent of the adult population.

A further 58,566 have had their second jab, which is 40.3 per cent.