A staycation if you’re lucky, expert advises holidaymakers
SCOTS should be allowed to take staycations this summer if the country continues to suppress coronavirus, according to a leading health expert.
Although holidays overseas will be ‘off the cards for a while’, Linda Bauld believes it will be possible to travel around Scotland in the coming months.
The professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh also hopes restaurants and pubs will soon be open again.
She explained yesterday: ‘People should be hopeful that we’re not going to be stuck in this situation indefinitely.’
However, she warned measures such as mask wearing and social distancing were likely to continue for some time.
Nicola Sturgeon has advised against booking holidays abroad and has also urged caution over booking trips domestically.
But speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Professor Bauld said: ‘I’m very hopeful that we’ll have breaks in Scotland and be able to take advantage of our fantastic hospitality and tourism industry here, and we need to support them. I think we’re looking forward to that.
‘I’m certainly already thinking about where I could go in a couple of months’ time.
‘And I think if we continue to make progress we will be able to holiday, not abroad – I think because of quarantine, unfortunately, foreign travel is going to be off the cards for a while – but travelling around more domestically, absolutely.’
On the reopening of pubs and restaurants, she added: ‘I’m really hopeful that they will be. I certainly think when the weather gets better we’ll be able to access that outdoors and then indoors with mitigation if we continue to make progress.
‘It’s been really, really tough for that sector. The important thing is when we do open up, we don’t want to have to close down again and that’s why the vaccines are going to be absolutely essential.
‘But we’re going to have some public health measures, face coverings, distancing and keeping our eye on not importing variants from overseas, for some time to come.’
She said she expects face coverings will continue to be worn for the rest of the year and in future winters.
More than a million people in Scotland have now had their first dose of a Covid vaccine.
Professor Bauld said she expects Scotland will return to the Levels framework of restrictions as the country reopens in stages.
She said that the framework is based on a range of indicators and, while progress is being made, the number of people in hospital needs to go down before things can change.
She said: ‘ICU and hospital numbers need to go down more and also the modelling of capacity needs to be in the right place, but I really do think we’re going to be hearing good news quite soon and people should be hopeful that we’re not going to be stuck in this situation indefinitely.’
The First Minister is under pressure not to make similar mistakes to last year, when people were allowed to travel abroad, and to now discourage people from making the trips
One adviser, Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, has suggested international travel
‘Fantastic hospitality’ ‘Being ready to stay put’
could be off the cards for much of the year.
Speaking previously, she said: ‘We must try to get things open domestically by not going abroad for your summer holidays and being ready to stay put for at least six to eight months.’
Miss Sturgeon has said: ‘I’m afraid you should not at this stage be booking holidays overseas.’
However, she is yet to reveal whether staycations will be possible for families this year.
Her government has not set out a route map out of lockdown and is prioritising children and a return to schooling over the economy.
Last year, the hospitality industry was given the go-ahead to open hotels and other accommodation in July. It gave families the opportunity to travel across Scotland and even south of the Border during the summer and October holidays.