Make mine a Tartan Special

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw wears a face mask during a visit to a restaurant in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, ahead of its reopening as Scotland prepares for the lifting of further lockdown restrictions.

Scotland will today embark on its “biggest step so far” on the journey out of coronavirus lockdown as hospitality and cultural venues open their doors, along with the country’s vital tourism sector.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned that the return of indoor socialising will bring the “highest risk changes” since full lockdown was declared in March and a “resurgence” of the virus is a real danger.

Pubs, restaurants, hotels and churches will finally open to public. Museums, galleries and heritage sites across Scotland can also restart as part of Phase 3 of the route map out of lockdown, along with cinemas, monuments and libraries

Scots have been urged to adhere to stick new rules which will apply on visits to pubs and restaurants, which includes providing contact details to staff and sticking to social distancing rules.

Ms Sturgeon fears that the re-introduction of lockdown measures around the world, as virus numbers soared following the lifting of restrictions, could be replicated in Scotland. It came as the country went six days in a row without any new deaths, the longest spell without a fatality since numbers began to surge in April. Just three new cases were also recorded as numbers continue to fall north of the border.

But Ms Sturgeon warned yesterday this “does not remove the risk”.

“The changes that come into force tomorrow are the highest risk changes so far since we started to come out of lockdown, because many of them involve indoor activity and we know that the risk of the virus spreading indoors in a pub for example is significantly higher than outdoors,” she said.

“We also see that in some other parts of the world these kinds of places are already being shut down all over again, because transmission has increased. Just last night the state of California shut all its bars, cinemas, restaurants and museums all over again.”

Hundreds of pubs and hotels across the country are likely to remain shut today, amid concerns that even the reduced one metre distancing will mean they are simply not viable, as well as the lack of sufficient visitor numbers.

The return of tourism has also prompted concerns among people in more remote and rural beauty spots about the impact that an influx of visitors could have on their communities.

But the owner of Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh, James Thomson, said his staff are “very excited” to be back at work and looking forward to welcoming guests.

Temperature checks for staff and guests, hand sanitiser stations, online check-in, personal menus, automatic doors, face shields for staff and cleaning rooms via electrostatic fogging machines are some of the measures now in place to protect against coronavirus.

“At five star level we’ve been doing social distancing for a while because we’ve plenty of room but we’ve actually reduced the number of tables in the restaurant as well,” Mr Thomson said.

Scottish Tory leader Jackson

Carlaw yesterday urged people to spend locally on a visit to the Cartvale Bar in his Busby constituency.

“If we want these amenities to exist, if we want to see them at the heart of our communities, we need to get out and support them as well,” he said.

In response to the easing of regulations, Mr Carlaw has called on the Scottish Government to create a mass marketing campaign urging Scots to shop locally.

“It is vital, because this is a huge sector for the Scottish economy, whether it be something local or whether it be the tourism that supports our many hotels across Scotland it’s vitally important that this sector recovers and that people have the confidence to go out and support it.”