THE UK will have to live with coronavirus for "some time to come" and the challenge will be finding a “better balance” in dealing with it, Nicola Sturgeon has said, as she made clear she had a duty to try to be frank with people on the way forward.
The First Minister admitted that she would be prepared to introduce different measures in Scotland to the rest of the UK if the medical and scientific advice suggested it but she also stressed that in tackling a virus, which did not respect borders, the “more consistency we can have across the UK in how we do these things, the better”.
Ms Sturgeon insisted that next week she would not set out a date on which the lockdown in Scotland would be lifted but, rather, explain the “decision-making framework” in which the Scottish Government would tackle the outbreak in the period ahead.
As the lockdown continues until at least May 7, the FM told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she wanted to make the way forward a “public discussion” and treat the public like grown-ups.
This, she pointed out, would cover the “factors we have to look at, what we need to see in terms of the spread of the virus before we can even think about lifting any of these measures, what the different options for that might be, what impact that might have, and then what we need to do instead to make sure we are continuing to suppress the virus, around, for example, testing, tracing and isolating.
“So, it’s about setting out the factors and the process we will undertake.”
She said what people had to get their heads around was that the coronavirus was “not just going to disappear”.
The FM explained: “We are going to be living with it for some time to come. Hopefully, we get a vaccine at some point and treatments along the way. But, in the meantime, we have to live with it and deal with it and continue to suppress it. The question and the challenge is how do we find a better balance of doing that than the one we have now.”
When it was suggested that the Scottish Government was being far more open about its approach to a possible lifting of restrictions than the UK Government, which suggested at this stage it would irresponsible to do so, Ms Sturgeon said: “I’m not sure I am saying that much different from the UK Government, to be perfectly frank…
“We are all going through this…incredibly challenge, for most of us the most difficult circumstances we have ever lived through. None of us has all the answers. I certainly don’t have all the answers but I do think as First Minister, in these difficult times, I have a duty to try to be as open with people as I can be about what I do know, what I don’t know, but what we are trying to find the answers to the questions that we don’t yet have.
“It’s about being open about the process. But I am not going to be able next week to set out all of the answers, the timescales or the milestones. But as much of this needs to be discussed in an open way with the public.
“Right now, the most important things I can say to the public is, firstly, the lockdown we are all living through right now is working. The early indications are that it has slowed down the spread of the virus and we are seeing that reflected in the stabilisation of the numbers being admitted to hospital and intensive care.
“But we also know, because the advice and recommendations to me from our scientific advisers are very clear, that if we start to lift those measures now we risk a resurgence of that virus that would very quickly overwhelm the NHS and lead to greater loss of life. So, we must stick with this for another period.”
Asked about approaching tackling the virus differently from the rest of the UK, the FM said: “If I was being advised, and if the judgement I was applying to that advice told me that I had to do something different to the rest of the UK because it was right and necessary to continue to control the virus in Scotland, of course I would do that. People would find it astounding if I said anything different to that.”
She said she would be driven by what advice, science and her own judgement told her what the right thing to do was.
“For the reasons I’ve set out about viruses not respecting borders but also for simplicity of messaging, the more consistency we can have across the UK in how we do these things, the better.
“But all of us have a duty and all leaders, I guess, may be reaching certainly different judgements on different things at different times, but we’re all, I’m pretty sure, trying to do our very best here to deal with a very challenging and a very difficult situation,” added Ms Sturgeon.
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