Hair at last: Pubs and salons reopen
Yvonne Smith takes her place as the first customer at Glasgow’s Taylor Ferguson Hairdressing since the country went into lockdown in March. Queues formed outside hairdressers across the country as salons reopened
People in Scotland should feel positive about the battle against coronavirus according to Nicola Sturgeon, who declared yesterday “a good day” as businesses across Scotland reopened and no Covid-19 deaths were reported for the seventh day in a row.
The First Minister said that suppressing the spread of the virus was “going in the right direction” and Scots should feel “motivated into not going backwards”.
However, she and the National Clinical Director Professor Jason Leitch again stressed their nervousness as pubs, restaurants and other businesses begin to reopen and warned that tougher lockdown restrictions could be brought back if the infection rate began to rise again.
The latest figures from the National Records of Scotland showed that a total of 4,187 deaths have now been registered in Scotland where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate – an increase of 13 deaths from the previous week.
However, Ms Sturgeon said hospital admissions were down, adding: “In the past 24 hours no deaths have been registered of a person who had been confirmed, through a test, of having a virus.
“That’s the seventh day in a row in which no deaths have been recorded in our daily figures.
“Last week was the 11th week in a row in which the number of deaths from Covid has fallen. They show that Covid is now being driven to very low levels in Scotland.
“We mustn’t forget that these numbers mean a tragedy for many people, a loss for families and friends.”
But she added: “This is a good day today. It’s the seventh day in a row we’ve reported no deaths, and [we’ve had] really positive news on hospital admissions. It’s going in the right direction.
“There are many businesses across the country opening their doors today for the first time and many of us as citizens will be able to do things for the first time today – or in the days to come – that we’ve not been able to do for months.
“It’s a good day, a day we should feel positive. It should also be a motivational day, a day when we collectively resolve not to go backwards, that we’re going to continue with this progress and continue to see the good news we’ve reported today.”
But she warned that things could still change “very quickly”, and while the government was preparing for a potential second wave in autumn, “right now our immediate challenge is a resurgence of the first wave”.
She said: “The minute we lower our guard, or turn our back and think we can stop taking all these precautions it will spread again, quicker than any of us would like to contemplate.”
Referring to a new outbreak in New South Wales in Australia, Prof Leitch added: “We still have to take this virus very seriously, it just takes 48 hours and it can be out of control”
Asked about people not keeping to social distancing rules in pubs and beer gardens, Ms Sturgeon said: “The rule is there for a reason and it’s about protecting people’s health. Am I concerned about people not following the rules? Yesiam.
“If the virus spreads again, I’m going to be standing here in a few weeks time saying we’re shutting pubs and restaurants again. I really don’t want to have to do that, but I will not hesitate to do it if it’s about saving lives.
“This is not a big bad government saying to people don’t do things or do things, it’s all about lives. Every time anyone of us deliberately or inadvertently breaches one of these rules then we provide this deadly virus a bridge to jump across. Don’t be that person that allows it to spread.”
Ms Sturgeon also denied the government was looking at restricting the amount of alcohol people could buy in a pub.