Blueprint for exit from lockdown next week amid ‘signs of hope’
A BLUEPRINT for easing Scotland’s lockdown is to be published next week after Nicola Sturgeon said there are now ‘sustained signs of hope’ in the battle against coronavirus.
The First Minister yesterday hailed ‘positive’ trends as official figures showed that the number of people who died of coronavirus fell for a second week in a row.
She intends to set out the ‘phasing’ for relaxing the lockdown in a document to be published next week.
Boris Johnson has relaxed some restrictions in England, with people advised from yesterday to travel to work if they cannot work from home.
The full lockdown remains in Scotland because of concerns about a higher infection rate. People have been advised to only leave their homes for essential work, food, medicine or exercise.
National Records of Scotland (NRS) data published yesterday show 415 deaths were registered with Covid-19 as a cause in the week to May 10 – 110 lower than the previous week.
The figures indicate that 238, or 57 per cent, of these deaths were in care homes, compared to 314 the previous week.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I readily acknowledge that no trend in statistics can ever comfort the many people who have lost a loved one to this virus.
‘My thoughts and sympathies are with each and every one of them. However, this week’s figures offer further and perhaps sustained signs of hope. The number of Covid-related deaths, although it is far too high, has fallen for a second week in a row, the number of deaths in care homes has also reduced for a second week, and the number of excess deaths is less than half the level that it was at three weeks ago.’
The NRS figures put the total Covid-19 death toll at 3,213, with 45 per cent of these in care homes, 48 per cent in hospitals and 7 per cent in homes or non-institutional settings.
Separate daily figures showed the number of people in hospital with suspected coronavirus symptoms fell by 84 yesterday, to 1,534, while those in intensive care fell by 11, to 70.
Under this measurement, which only reports deaths in hospitals, the death toll rose by 61, to 1,973. Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The trends that we are now seeing are positive. If transmission rates continue to fall, we will be able to gradually relax the lockdown restrictions.
‘However, we will continue to err on the side of caution.’
Asked by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie about timescales for relaxation measures, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘It will probably not be possible to get back to complete normality until there is a vaccine or treatment, so we will be living with aspects of the current situation for a significant time to come. However, we will start to have to ease things to get back to a semblance of normality.
‘Over the course of next week, I hope to set out what we think the phasing of that will be.’
The NRS data also shows that people in the most deprived parts of the country were 2.3 times more likely to die with the virus than those living in the least deprived areas.
‘The trends are now positive’