Sturgeon defends decision to reopen
Nicola Sturgeon has defended her decision to begin to reopen the economy before all of Scotland’s population has received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
She was asked in the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 briefing why, given the risks associated with high case numbers and a more infectious variant of the virus now established in Scotland, she was not waiting for all Scots to have received a dose of the vaccine.
Around 60 per cent of Scots have received a jag, official data states, with the Scottish Government aiming to have vaccinated the adult population by the end of July.
The First Minister said: “We are opening up at the pace we think is right.
"This is not an exact science, it involves a lot of difficult judgements.
"I like to think most judgementswegetoverallright,but some judgements we might not at some moments. But we are trying to do it at a pace we thinkissustainablesothatwe
open up gradually in a way that allows people to get back to some sort of normality, but stillkeepthisvirusundercontrol.”
Chief medical officer Gregor Smith also defended the decision, saying while the case rate in Scotland is higher now than in September when restrictions were reintroduced and when the country exited the first lockdown, the government’s testing regime meant the figures were not comparable.
He said many other factors, including the vaccination regime, meant clinicians believed the move to reopen was safe.