NICOLA Sturgeon is poised to announce any potential lockdown changes today amid varying cases numbers across the country.
Last week, the First Minister said that outbreaks in Glasgow and Moray meant they would remain in Level 3 restrictions, while the rest of mainland Scotland moved to Level 2.
And speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Scotland on Tuesday, Professor Jason Leitch said: “We will give advice all this week and we will be speaking to the First Minister and her cabinet later in the week – and they will decide on Thursday or Friday what to do with the two that are in Level 3 and any that might have to move.”
The First Minister is expected to give a briefing at around noon.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon lockdown statement: When is it, where to watch and what to expect
As hinted by the national clinical director, there are some areas who may have to be pushed back into tougher restrictions.
New figures show East Renfrewshire has overtaken Glasgow as the country’s Covid hotspot.
The rate of cases in East Renfrewshire has risen to 118.3 per 100,000 in the seven days to May 17, though the area remains in Level 2 of the Scottish Government’s coronavirus restriction levels.
This has pushed it ahead of Glasgow, which saw case rates rise to 112.1 per 100,000 people in the seven days to May 17.
Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, a research fellow in the department of infection and immunity at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, said that putting East Renfrewshire back into Level 3 would “certainly slow down the outbreak quicker”.
📺 I will be giving a Covid update at 12.15pm today, alongside new Health Secretary @HumzaYousaf and @jasonleitch. We will be covering the situation in Glasgow and Moray, but also giving an assessment of the situation across Scotland. Please tune in if you can.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) May 21, 2021
READ MORE: East Renfrewshire overtakes Glasgow as Scotland's Covid hotspot
Asked whether the area should move up a level, she said: “It’s a very difficult decision at the moment and, we can probably compare this to Bolton down in England, where cases are now at 300 per 100,000, so they are about three times without measures in place.
“So, clearly, it means the outbreak in Glasgow is slowing down faster in that Level 3, and surge testing does work in slowing down that really big moving lorry a bit quicker, and that’s pretty much what we have to think about.”
Dr Tait-Burkard added: “It’s possible it’s going to go into Level 3, East Renfrewshire, it’s also very likely Moray is actually going down to Level 2 on the other hand, so that tells us surge testing does work and we can get these outbreaks under control easier than we were able to last year.”
Case rates in Moray fell to 36.5 per 100,000 people in the seven days to May 17.
We'll be providing all the latest from the briefing on our Live Blog and website.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel