Risk, not politics, will determine
Quarantine for visitors to Scotland from elsewhere in the UK has not been ruled out, Nicola Sturgeon admitted yesterday, as she said any restrictions on movement of people from England to Scotland would be based on risk, not politics.
The First Minister said that, with coronavirus levels remaining low in Scotland, there was a risk of “importation of the virus”, particularly as the prevalence of Covid-19 was five times higher in England.
However, her comments were criticised by opposition politicians and pro-union groups, who said Ms Sturgeon was attempting to “drive a wedge” between the two nations.
Asked on the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show why she hadn’t already introduced quarantine for English visitors given the gap in coronavirus infection numbers, Ms Sturgeon said: ”We will keep all of these things under review. One of our biggest risks over the next few weeks is the risk of importation into the country. That’s why we’ve taken a very cautious decision about international quarantine.
“And this is not a position I relish being in, it also means that we have to take a very close look at making sure that we are not seeing the virus come in from other parts of the UK.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called the idea “astonishing and shameful” but Ms Sturgeon said the UK nations needed to work together on outbreak management in a way that “mitigates against having to put any border restrictions in place”.
She again pointed to countries such as Australia and the United States, where controls have been put in place to limit movement across state or regional boundaries, and said the Scottish government would look at similar measures on a public health basis.
“That’s not political. It’s not constitutional. It’s just taking a similar view to countries across the world in terms of protecting the population from the risk of the virus,” she said.
“This is not something we’ve decided to do at this stage or something I’m immediately planning to do, but I will take decisions the best I can to protect the health of Scotland and to take that from a public health perspective.
“This is not about saying to people in England you are not welcome in Scotland – of course people in England are welcome in Scotland. This is about taking decisions which try to protect people in Scotland from Covid as much as possible. Leaders across the world are taking these very objective public health decisions and I’m determined to do likewise.”
Ms Sturgeon also said she wanted the UK government to “be more explicit” about its attempts to eliminate coronavirus.
“We need to be sure that any outbreaks in England are being properly managed, just as England will want to be sure that any outbreaks in Scotland are properly managed. It’s when there isn’t that confidence that the concern about possible importation would grow,” she said.
Labour Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said Ms Sturgeon’s focus should be on the economy rather than “preventing people from England crossing the Border”.
He added: “Scotland has the highest rate of unemployment in the UK, with almost three quarters of a million more on furlough or self-employment support, yet we are once again stuck in a debate about quarantining English tourists.
“A proper functioning tracking system isolates local outbreaks to avoid locking down entire countries but it’s either a constitutional obsession or a lack of confidence in the Scottish Government’s own system that is driving the First Minister to talk about closing borders.”
“It’s time for both governments to stop playing party politics and to focus on solutions to the immediate postcovid challenges that save jobs, businesses and protect our public services.”
Pamela Nash, of Scotland in Union, said: “By once again talking up the prospect of quarantining English visitors, she is trying to drive a wedge between Scotland and England, and giving the green light to her supporters to repeat their ugly protests.
“Any future lockdown measures should be taken on localised public health decisions, as we have seen in Leicester, not based on the line on the map between Scotland and England.”
Edinburgh University health policy expert Professor Linda Bauld also said that key data on testing was missing from the Scottish Government’s test and trace system. She said: “I’d like to see more transparency.
“There’s a lot of questions about England’s test and trace but in Scotland, while it’s in place, all you get is the number of people entered into the system, which is about 785 since the end of May, and the number of contacts, traced which is about 2100, 2.7 contacts per person.
But other data is missing. I’d like to know, out of the number of positive cases, how many were successfully contacted as a proportion, and, secondly of the people traced, did they actually agree to isolate for two weeks and what support was given? I think, if we see outbreaks, that kind of transparency is important.”