NICOLA Sturgeon will update MSPs on any further tightening of Covid-19 restrictions on Wednesday – as she warned it was “very unlikely there will be a wholesale lifting” of rules at the end of the month.
The First Minister discussed potential additional measures with her Cabinet on Tuesday morning over “whether there are any areas – takeaway, click and collect services being two examples – where we think there is a need to further tighten restrictions to reduce the occasions and reasons for people to be out of their homes”.
Ms Sturgeon said that discussions will continue and any changes will be announced when she addresses Holyrood tomorrow.
She added: “It may not be about saying you cannot have takeaway at all, but do we need to tighten up how that operates just to limit the potential for people coming together inside.”
Click and collect may not be stopped “altogether”, she said, but it was being considered if it should remain for non-essential services.
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Hospital admissions continue to be at a very high level with 1,117 people in hospital in the latest daily figures.
The First Minister said: “That compares to a peak of just over 1,500 in the first wave back in April - so again we can see the very acute pressure that Covid is currently putting on our hospitals across the country.”
Ms Sturgeon pointed to the test positivity not rising to around 20 per cent in Scotland, as it has done in parts of England – and is instead around the 12 per cent mark, amid suggestion things may be stabilising, albeit at a very high level.
She added: “I don’t want anybody getting complacent around that because it’s too early to be definitive.
"If it is the case that the restrictions might be starting to stabilise things, it’s only because we’ve got the restrictions and we need to keep at them to keep it like that and avoid it running amok again.
“Because we’ve still got that high level, we’re going to see continued and growing pressure on the NHS for some time to come, which is why it is so important to keep it under control.”
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Next week, ministers will review the current lockdown restrictions and decide whether it will be extended into next month – with all of mainland Scotland under ‘stay at home’ orders and islands under level 3 measures, while schools are closed across the entire country until at least February 1.
The First Minister warned that it is unlikely the rules will be eased significantly, if at all, following the review.
She said: “I wouldn’t want to raise expectations that we will lift all of these restrictions at the end of January – I think that is very unlikely that we will have a wholesale lifting of these restrictions.
“There may not even be any of these restrictions as soon as the end of January. We will have to consider all of that carefully and set that out in due course.”
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