The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
FM hints schools will go back full-time but lockdown limbo stays
Sturgeon warns businesses to brace themselves for disappointment
Nicola Sturgeon warned businesses to brace themselves for disappointment as she signalled that most existing coronavirus restrictions will remain in place when lockdown is reviewed.
The first minister said she would be taking a “very cautious” approach on easing measures in order to prioritise getting schools back full-time next month.
At her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon gave her strongest hint yet that her Cabinet had rejected the controversial blended learning model, combining very limited access to classrooms with home education, when it had met just an hour or so before.
Ms Sturgeon is expected to confirm schools will return on a full-time basis on August 11 when she announces her plans to the Scottish Parliament shortly.
Her Holyrood statement will also include a review of lockdown restrictions in which she looks set to resist pleas from businesses to relax restrictions on gyms, swimming pools and weddings.
Asked about her Cabinet’s decision on education, Ms Sturgeon said she was “duty bound” to announce the decision to parliament but added that she had not said anything “to suggest we’re going in the opposite direction” to a return to fulltime education.
But as she announced that the National Records of Scotland had recorded eight more Covid-19 deaths in the week leading up to Sunday, she warned maintaining anti-coronavirus measures was the price to pay for getting schools back.
Her statement will mark the Scottish Government’s three-weekly milestone at which it reviews whether to move from phase three to phase four of the route map out of lockdown.
Ms Sturgeon said she hoped to confirm the pausing of shielding at the end of this month but said it was her “central objective” for the next three weeks to get schools back in action, a priority that would result in businesses being “disappointed”.
The first minister has repeatedly said she does not want a resurgence of the virus to threaten the start of the new term.
She said: “There will be, I’m sure, parts of our economy, and people, who will be disappointed tomorrow if changes they want to hear are not happening as quickly as they would like.”
“There will be, I’m sure, parts of our economy and people who will be disappointed ... if changes they wanted to hear are not happening as quickly as they would like. NICOLA STURGEON