Coronavirus Scotland: Sturgeon to implement new three-tier lockdown system

The Prime Minister said regions south of the Border would be put on medium, high and very high alert from tomorrow, according to the prevalence of the virus.

So far, only Liverpool City Region is to be placed on very high alert, meaning the closure of all pubs, bars, gyms and leisure centres and a ban on household mixing for 1.5 million people.

Mr Johnson told the House of Commons: “This is not how we want to live our lives, but this is the narrow path we have to tread between the social and economic trauma of a full lockdown and the massive human and economic cost of an uncontained epidemic.”

At the daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon said Scotland’s three-tiered system would be introduced after the current 16-day circuit breaker, or “reset”, measures end on October 26.

She said the five Central Belt health board regions with the toughest lockdown measures at present, including mass hospitality closures, would probably be classed as very high risk under it.

The rest of the country would be on high alert, a measure than in England means some curbs on hospitality and household mixing.

She also said there might be “different levels” within the tiers, to give people “greater clarity” about the degree of lockdown required to fight the virus.

Speaking after a high-level Cobra meeting with the PM and other devolved leaders, Ms Sturgeon said more details would be announced in the coming fortnight, but the English system gave “an idea” of what lay ahead for Scotland.

She said: “We intend to develop our own tiering framework and bring that to Parliament after the October recess, and that will coincide with the ending of the temporary restrictions.

“At a strategic level, we will be looking to align as closely as possible with the other UK nations – I think it is important and it makes sense to try to do that.

“Though I would stress that operational decisions about what tiers may apply in which parts of our nations will be for each of us to take at a devolved level.”

Ms Sturgeon also said there had been another 961 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Scotland overnight, with 17.1 per cent of those newly tested having positive results.

The total number of people testing positive in Scotland is now 39,959.

There were no new deaths, but 487 people were in hospital for Covid, 36 of whom were in intensive care.

Of the 961 new cases, 359 were within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 244 in Lanarkshire and 112 in Lothian and 88 in Ayrshire and Arran.

The only health boards without new cases were Orkney and Shetland.

In the Commons, a sombre Mr Johnson said the “stark reality of the second wave” of the virus was clear.

He said: “The number of cases has quadrupled in the last three weeks, there are now more people in hospital with Covid than when we went into lockdown on March 23 and deaths are already rising.”

He announced areas of England would be placed into one of three categories: medium, high or very high, with restrictions differing accordingly.

Areas on medium alert would be subject to the current rules in England - a 10pm closing time for hospitality, and no more than six people allowed to meet anywhere.

At high alert level, household mixing will be banned indoors, although support bubbles will still be permitted.

And at the very high alert level, mixing between households is banned completely, pubs and bars must close unless they can operate as a restaurant, and people are advised against travel in and out of such areas.

Mr Johnson said he wanted to avoid a full-scale national lockdown.

He told MPs: “There are those who say... we should go back into a full national lockdown of indefinite duration, closing schools and businesses, telling people again to stay at home as we did in March. Once again shattering our lives and our society. I do not believe that would be the right course.

“We would not only be depriving our children of their education, we would do such damage to our economy as to erode our long-term ability to fund the NHS and other crucial public services.

“And on the other side of the argument, there are those who think that the patience of the public is now exhausted, that we should abandon the fight against Covid, stand aside, let nature take her course and call a halt to these repressions of liberty.”

Mr Johnson later faced a push-back from civic leaders in the north west of England, who complained of a lack of scientific evidence.

A number of MPs also claimed they were left out of meetings about the tiers or given just a few minutes’ notice.

But the PM insisted at a Downing Street press conference: “These figures are flashing at us like dashboard warnings in a passenger jet, and we must act now.

“I believe not to act would be unforgivable, so I hope that rapid progress can be made in the coming days. “If we can’t get agreement [with local leaders], then clearly it is the duty of national government to take the necessary action to protect the public and public health and we will.”

For the areas with the most severe restrictions, a share of £1bn will be provided to give them extra support, according to the Prime Minister.

With cases of coronavirus now rising exponentially cross the country, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was “sceptical” that the Government had a grip of the crisis.

He said the new restrictions showed the PM “running to catch up with a virus he has lost control of long ago”.

Sir Keir said the Government had a pattern of introducing restrictions that did not work as intended.

He  said: “We have tried to give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt, but it increasingly feels like the Prime Minister is several steps behind the curve and running to catch up with a virus that he has lost control of long ago.

“It was less than three weeks ago – 22 September – the Prime Minister came to this House to announce new restrictions.

“He said then that the measures he was introducing would ‘curb the number of daily infections’. And were ‘carefully judged to achieved the maximum reduction in the R number’.

“That has not happened. Those measures have not worked. We would not be here today if they had.”

He added that 20 areas of the UK were now under local lockdowns for more than two months, and 19 of them “have seen their infection rates rise – some by very large amounts.”

Sir Keir added: “The worst thing the Prime Minister can do is not act quickly and decisively enough.

“ Or to keep coming back to this House every couple of weeks with a new plan that doesn’t work and isn’t up to the scale of the task.

“We need to break that cycle, finally get on top of the virus, rebuild public confidence. I hope the measures announced today will do so.

“But the House, and the country, will be deeply sceptical whether they can.”

The First Minister also revealed coach travel was cropping up in contact tracing as a means of transmission, calling it an “emerging theme”.

She said: “We’ve seen a number of Covid cases in recent weeks coming through our Test and Protect system associated with travel, often coach travel, to other parts of the UK.”

Those living in the central belt where cases are rising have been asked to avoid non-essential travel outside of their region.

Ms Sturgeon added: “What we have seen is that coach travel - and this is a time of year when people will often go on coach trips to other parts of the UK - is a theme emerging through the Test and Protect work.”

Chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith said people should think “very, very carefully” about taking coach trips such as family and group outings.

He said it was difficult to determine if transmission took place on the coaches or the venues each group visited.

He said: “We have evidence of family and friend groups who have participated in coach travel, perhaps gone away on outings together, and subsequently members of those parties have tested positive.

“My advice would be to think very, very carefully before participating in any type of travel like that.

“Particularly if you plan to go to areas of the country where there is a high prevalence of the disease just now.”

He highlighted the north and north-west of England as areas with high rates of transmission where high-risk groups should take particular care.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross demanded at least a week’s notice before further lockdown rules, saying it was “unfair to force businesses to shut on a few days’ notice”. He said: “We don’t have to choose between backing business and protecting public health - we need to do both.”

Asked about the idea, Ms Sturgeon said Government had to keep pace with the virus, meaning such a period of notice would not always be possible.

She also said families should be wary of making long-distance travel plans for Christmas.

She said it would be some time before the rules for the festive period would be known, and although she wanted people to have as normal a Christmas as possible.