Here’s what Nicola Sturgeon's four lockdown exit phases mean

That’s the new name for the test, trace, isolate, and support system. It’s all about keeping on top of the virus, knowing where it is, and containing it when there is an outbreak.

Anyone who has “symptoms consistent with Covid-19” will be tested, and their close contacts identified.

Those who test positive will be told “to self-isolate, protecting themselves and others from transmitting the virus further”.

This is going to be a much bigger job than you might think. In South Korea, a recent outbreak infecting 170 people was traced back to a popular nightspot in Seoul.

Contact tracers subsequently identified, and tested a whopping 65,000 people

During her speech in Holyrood yesterday, the First Minister said the public would need to take some responsibility. “Each of us will have an ongoing responsibility to protect ourselves and each other,” she said.

The danger is, the Government’s route map says, that as restrictions lift, cases could become clusters, which could then become outbreaks, which could then become an uncontrolled peak “that would require a return to lockdown to avoid enormous loss of life and an overwhelming of our health and care system”.

There are four phases to the government’s route map out of lockdown. While Nicola Sturgeon warned it “would be a mistake” to give definite dates for each stage, we do know that each phase will be reviewed every three weeks. It’s also important to note that we could be in different phases at the same time.

Phase 1 – from May 28

People will be able to use outdoor spaces for relaxing as well as for meeting one other household at a time – as long as you all stick to social distancing guidelines.

You will be able to sit outside, to sunbathe. You can travel short distances – defined in the document as “broadly within five miles” for outdoor leisure and exercise. You can travel further to meet family – more details on that will come.

Sporting activities which don’t involve physical contact – golf, hiking, canoeing, outdoor swimming, bowls and angling, for example – can all resume.

There will be a gradual opening of drive-through food outlets as well as garden centres – although not the latter’s cafes.

Teaching staff will be able to return to schools, and we should see the reopening of childminding services and outdoor nurseries.

Plans are in place for the reopening of the housing market.

Outdoor workplaces will resume with physical distancing measures in place once guidance is agreed, and the construction sector should implement the first two phases of its restart plan.

NHS primary and community services – including mental health – will restart. There will be a resumption of IVF treatment as soon as it is “safe to do so”.

Court and tribunal buildings should re-open, with limited access.

Phase 2 – from June 18

This will begin once the transmission rate, known as the R number, is consistently below one. Scotland must also meet the six criteria set out by the World Health Organisation for easing restrictions.

They include preventive measures being established in workplaces, “with physical distancing, handwashing facilities and respiratory etiquette in place”.

At this stage people will be able to meet up with larger groups of family and friends outdoors. And households should be able to meet up with another household indoors.

Workplaces which are not in offices are expected to open with safety measures in place. This would include factories and warehouses, as well as lab and research facilities.

Pubs and restaurants will be able to open outdoor spaces with social distancing measures in place. Outdoor markets, small retail units, sports courts and playgrounds will reopen.

Marriages, civil partnerships and other types of ceremonies can take place with a limited number of attendees. Places of worship would be able to open for private prayer.

There will be a “phased resumption of visiting to care homes by family members in a managed way where it is clinically safe to do so.”

Phase 3 – potentially from July 9 (although probably not until early August)

People will be able to leave their local area for leisure and exercise. Gyms will be reopened with physical distancing in place.

More than two households will be able to meet up indoors as long as safety measures are adhered to, such as social distancing.

Children will return to school – scheduled for August 11– under a blended model of part-time in-school teaching and part-time in-home learning. There will also be a phased return for universities and colleges with a mix of

remote learning and limited on-campus learning.

Pubs, restaurants, large retailers, museums, galleries, cinemas and libraries will also reopen. Live events will be permitted with restricted numbers. Hairdressers will also be able to return to work.

Phase 4

This is as near to normality as we can expect in terms of the not too distant future.

It will begin when the virus remains suppressed to very low levels and is no longer considered a significant threat to public health.

This may not come in until there is a vaccine or an effective treatment for coronavirus.