Discussions ‘ongoing’ about Scotland-england border restrictions
Discussions are ongoing between the governments of Scotland and the UK around possible future restrictions at the Scotland-england border to reduce transmission of Covid-19.
Scotland is keen to work “collaboratively” on a four-nation basis regarding the border, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said at the coronavirus daily briefing on Friday.
It comes after Health Secretary Jeane Freeman did not rule out roadblocks at the border if the UK Government does not tighten its international quarantine proposals, which are currently more lenient than those in Scotland.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said last week that plans by the UK Government for a “managed quarantine” system for travellers from certain countries do not go far enough, as she announced Scotland will do the same for all travellers.
She added she will continue to urge the UK Government to tighten its system.
Ms Freeman said on Friday morning: “Discussions need to continue to see what more we can do, if we can’t persuade the UK Government to take the tough, clinically-led approach that we are taking, then we need to work with them to identify how can we then continue to protect Scotland to the maximum level.”
Asked about possible border checks at the coronavirus daily briefing on Friday, Mr Swinney said discussions are “ongoing” between the Scottish and UK governments about restrictions.
He welcomed comments from Michael Gove earlier this week that people should not enter England from abroad and then cross over the border to Scotland.
“I thought that was a particularly helpful comment from Michael Gove about how we might be able to put in place arrangements that enable us to put up as big and as effective an obstacle as we would like to put in place to stop the reimportation of the virus, and that will be material to the discussions which we take forward,” he said.
Genomicsequencingreports showed that Covid-19 was reseeded
They added that requiring passengers to quarantine on arrival and test negative for coronavirus before they are released has the "most substantial potential effect on reducing the risk of infected arrivals".
The Department of Health and Social Care said it is working "at pace to secure the facilities we need" for the new hotel quarantine policy.
A commercial specification was issued on Thursday evening to hotels near air and sea ports.
A No 10 spokesman said on Friday that "no formal contracts have been awarded as yet".
There was some encouraging news on Friday, as it was reported that the coronavirus positivity rate in Scotland has dropped to a level that the World Health Organisation would class as a pandemic “under control”.
Mr Swinney said: “It is the second day in succession, in which the positivity rate been below five per cent, which is the World Health Organisation’s definition for a pandemic under control.
“This is very encouraging news. We also had the new yesterday that the R numbers is between 0.7 and 0.9, comfortably indicating the R is now below one.
"1794 people are currently in hospital, 18 fewer than yesterday. 183 patients are in ICU - four fewer than yesterday.”
However, the Deputy First Minister said that the death toll in Scotland had continued to rise.
He continued: "And I'm very sorry to report that 61 additional deaths have been registered in the last 24 hours, of a patient who first tested positive over the last 28 days.
"That takes the total number of deaths under that measurement to 6383.
"Every death under this virus is a source of grief and heartbreak, and I want to send my condolences once again to all of those who have lost a loved one during this pandemic.”