THE Western Isles is set to join mainland Scotland in full lockdown after a surge in new coronavirus cases pushed its principal hospital to capacity.
SNP Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said a formal decision on raising the islands from level 3 to Level 4 was expected later today.
However her advice residents was to observe the key step in level 4, stay at home, now.
The islands of Barra and Vatersay are already in level 4 as Covid hotspots, but the Scottish Government is now “urgently examining” a rise in cases across the Outer Hebrides
Ms Freeman said nine new cases has been reported on Thursday and six more on Friday.
The spikes meant the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway has now reached capacity.
Ms Freeman urged people “not to wait” until the formal announcement of the highest tier.
She said: “Please stay at home whenever possible and help your local National Health Service through this.”
Hosting the daily briefing, Ms Freeman also announced the number of confirmed Covid deaths had passed 6,000, with 70 fatalities overnight taking the total to 6,040.
There were also 1155 new positive cases, taking the total number to 177,688.
However, in better news, she also confirmed the number of Scots who had received their first dose of vaccine has passed the half-million mark to 515,855, up 24,197 overnight.
She said the 15 new cases in the Western Isles “might not sound like very many” but the population was “relatively small” and “so proportionally these are high numbers”.
She said: “In addition these cases follow on from quite a high number of cases two weeks ago – including a significant community outbreak on Barra.
“All of that is placing significant strain on hospital capacity in the Western Isles Health Board area. In fact, the hospital in Stornoway has now reached full capacity.
“So it is therefore vital that we do everything we can to stop community transmission.
“For that reason, we are urgently examining whether the whole of the Western Isles will now move from Level 3 to Level 4.
“Barra and Vatersay are already in Level 4, as a result of that recent outbreak in Barra.
“That decision, on the whole of the Western Isles, will be taken today and would mean that everyone, like everyone in mainland Scotland, must stay at home, unless for an essential purpose.
“While that consideration will be completed over the next couple of hours, I would urge people to please not wait: please stay at home, whenever possible, and help your local National Health Service through this.”
Apart from the Western Isles, only Shetland and Orkney are still in level 3 in Scotland.
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