Sturgeon ‘not considering lockdown’ as Covid cases above 6,000
NICOLA Sturgeon has said the Scottish Government is not considering a circuit-breaker lockdown to deal with the sharp increase in Covid infections as the number of cases surged above 6,000 for the first time.
A total of 6,835 new cases were reported yesterday, the highest number of cases recorded since the pandemic began.
There is also a steep rise in patients in hospital with the virus, with 479 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19 – up 53 on the previous day and an increase from 312 one week previously.
A total of four deaths of coronavirus patients were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll since the start of the pandemic to 8,103.
The First Minister said the rising numbers were “cause for concern” but insisted the Government was not currently considering the introduction of a circuit-breaker lockdown.
She said authorities are watching closely to see “whether and to what extent we might start to see significant increase in serious illness and obviously in people being hospitalised.”
But Ms Sturgeon said
“none of us want to go backwards to even limited restrictions”, adding: “We are
not currently considering a circuit-breaker lockdown.”
She added: “In the past seven days we have reported more new cases than at any previous time in the pandemic, although I refer back to my point about higher levels of testing, but case numbers have roughly doubled over the course of the past seven days.
“It’s important to point out that case numbers are rising across the UK just now, but after a period of slower increases in Scotland the rise here is particularly sharp at the moment.
“That is possibly, at least in part, a reflection of the fact that our schools return earlier, with the increased interactions that come with that.”
Ms Sturgeon said the vaccination programme had significantly weakened but not completely broken the link between cases and serious illness.
The First Minister urged everyone to do their part to help slow the spread of the virus.
“For the moment I do need to stress the vital importance of everyone playing their part in limiting spread of the virus. The more we all do this, the more chance we have of avoiding the need for the re-imposition of any formal restrictions,” she said.
Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Drivetime show, Clinical Director Professor Jason Leitch said the modelling showed cases were going to worsen.
He said: “If you think about doubling time, we’ve doubled in seven days so if that continues we will be at double what we’ve got today. We are at 6,800 so we’ll be at nearly 14,000 a week from now unless we’ve reached a peak or are heading for a peak that isn’t quite visible to us.
“The NHS will cope with pretty much everything. The problem is as soon as you fill it with Covid you have to make room for that and you make room by stopping non-essential getting in.”
He said the reason for the rise in cases would only become clear over a long time period but cited schools returning and the Delta variant having taken hold in Glasgow.
He added: “I fear when England and Wales open their schools.”
Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser warned that heightening the threat of restrictions when our vaccine system had been so successful would jeopardise the country’s recovery from the pandemic. He added: “The Scottish people cannot be kept in this holding pattern of removing and introducing Covid restrictions, particularly when there is no threat of a new variant at this time.
“The recovery of our NHS and Scotland’s economy is at stake.
“The SNP must give that more consideration now that so many people have been vaccinated.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar voiced his concerns about the case rate and the increase in hospitalisations, and said the way we “ramp up” the rollout of the coronavirus vaccination was crucial.