THE Scottish Government has promised to look at the possibility of restricting sections of parks and green space for those who are shielding during the coronavirus crisis.
People who are clinically at high risk from Covid-19 have been urged by the government to completely self-isolate indoors and minimise all interaction.
That includes all organ transplant recipients, those receiving chemotherapy, those with severe lung disease, those with certain metabolic diseases, the significantly immuno-suppressed, pregnant women with underlying heart problems, and anyone GPs consider vulnerable.
On Wednesday, the Scottish Government published a framework paper looking at the various options being considered to help the country adapt to the “new normal” of living with the virus.
However, it painted a bleak picture for the shielded, saying they would be “asked to continue to observe the additional restrictions currently in place”.
It went on to say the government is “committed to an honest conversation with our citizens who are shielding and with their families about the support they need, the evidence about the risks they face, and maintaining a quality of life while shielding.”
Yesterday during First Minister’s Questions, the SNP MSP Joan McAlpine raised the case of her 13 year old constituent Hannah Jack who is immuno-suppressed.
While Hannah’s mum was supportive of the need for “restrictions to last as long as needed to keep us all safe” she asked if the government could consider way to help shielded people “get out into the sunshine and take a bit of exercise”.
“Is there anything that we could maybe look at like restricting green spaces for certain times of the day for people who are shielded and who can go to exercise and get sunshine in any other way?” McAlpine asked.
Sturgeon said she was “happy to look in more detail at those very practical suggestions because I absolutely understand why suggestions like that would be made and how difficult it is for shielded people”.
Responding to a similar question from Fulton MacGregor, the First Minister said the government would “do anything we possibly could to make” life easier for the shielded.
However, she warned that people were being asked to shield “because their health condition means that they are particularly at risk from the virus”.
Any changes would have to be “very carefully considered and clinically advised and driven which is why I want to be cautious today about raising expectations about what might be possible,” she added.
Elsewhere during the session, the SNP leader said she aims to reopen IVF clinics as soon as possible. Fertility treatment was put on hold at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, but the UK Government has now announced services will be restored at the start of this month.
Tory MSP Ruth Davidson raised the issue, saying: “It is a decision that is both completely understandable but nonetheless devastating, as for many people IVF is the last or only hope of starting a family.”
Sturgeon said she wanted to get “that service restarted as quickly as possible.”
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