Sturgeon hopeful of ‘minor’ lockdown loosening
NICOLA Sturgeon is hopeful “minor but important” changes will be made to Scotland’s lockdown rules next week.
The First Minister said the progress of the vaccination programme and a drop in cases signalled “greater normality is firmly on the horizon”.
She said changes could be made to the rules around meeting people outdoors and allowing young people to see friends outdoors.
Ms Sturgeon made the comments at the Scottish Government’s regular coronavirus update.
She said: “The good progress of the vaccination programme and also the declining number of people catching or falling seriously ill with Covid should give us all real encouragement just now that greater normality is firmly on the horizon.”
She added: “I’m hopeful that next week we might be able to make some relatively minor, but I think important, changes to the rules around our ability to meet people outdoors, and also to how young people are able to interact with their friends outdoors.
“I think it’s really important that we don’t get carried away yet – the overall ‘stay at home’
message needs to stay for a bit longer so that we don’t send our progress into reverse.
“But I’m very keen that within that, if we can, then we should all get a bit more opportunity to see loved ones, as the first steps we take out of this lockdown.”
Ms Sturgeon said she will announce the new changes in Holyrood on Tuesday.
She said there had been 498 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the previous 24 hours – the lowest daily total since September 27.
Hospital cases have fallen, with 666 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, down 52 in 24 hours, and 64 patients in intensive care, down three.
Scotland recorded 11 deaths of coronavirus patients, taking deaths under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 7,409.
Ms Sturgeon urged people to stick with the rules, adding that if they did, she is “really, really optimistic that we will continue to see the progress we need to see to start opening things up and getting us all back to much more reality”.
She warned: “We also know then just how quickly things started to go in the wrong direction.
“It is really important we stick with it for now, hold our nerve, keep suppressing cases while vaccination does its job.
“If we do all of that, we can be really hopeful that there are definitely, at long last, better days lying ahead.”
Jason Leitch, Scotland’s national clinical director, said he is “more hopeful” than he has been for some time.
He said the World Health Organisation says countries should look at “four baskets of measures around whether you have Covid-19 and the pandemic under control”.
These are cases, positivity, hospitalisations and deaths.
Mr Leitch said new cases have dipped below 500, while test positivity rates are below 5 per cent.
Meanwhile, 50 people a day have been admitted to hospital on average over the last week.
This is the lowest since early October.
The number of deaths is also the lowest since October, using a seven-day average. He said: “All four data points
[are] moving in the right direction and moving quite quickly in the right direction.”
Ms Sturgeon said that by 8.30am yesterday, a total of 1,717,672 Scots had received their first coronavirus vaccine, an increase of 29,064 from the previous day.
Meanwhile, a total of 108,197 have had their second jab, with
8,139 getting this on Thursday.
Ms Sturgeon said 96% of 65- to 69-year-olds had had their first dose of the vaccine, along with 39% of 60to 64-year-olds, 33% of 55 to 59-yearolds and 27% of 50 to 54-year-olds.
She warned: “We might face some supply issues next week which could affect vaccination appointments, but we are working hard to try to avoid that.”
She also stressed Scotland is still “on track” to have offered a first dose to everyone aged 50 and above, all unpaid carers and all adults with certain underlying health conditions by the middle of April.
The First Minister said routine testing is now available for people without symptoms in food production and processing businesses – such as dairies, abattoirs and meat and seafood processing plants.
She said these workplaces had a higher risk of transmission, due to factors such as the cold temperature and limited ventilation.
It came as it was reported the mystery person infected with the Manaus variant of coronavirus had been found.
Officials have been hunting for the unknown individual after cases of the variant of concern were detected in the UK.
Six cases of the P1 variant, first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus, have been found – three in Scotland and three in England.
A public appeal was made for one of those people in England to come forward after they took a test in February but left no contact details.
Earlier this week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the hunt for the infected person had been narrowed down to 379 households in the south-east of England.
According to the BBC, public health officials have now found the unnamed person and traced all of their contacts. The individual’s location has not been reported.