CHILDREN will be allowed to play with their friends and hug their grandparents today after Nicola Sturgeon moved to change social distancing rules for the under-12s.
The relaxation applies to children who are not shielding and is based on evidence that the risk to young people from coronavirus is “relatively low”.
As long as they are outdoors, and there are no more than eight others from no more than three households, they’ll be able to “enjoy these summer holidays a bit more,” the First Minister said.
Organised outdoor contact sports for children is also expected to resume from July 13.
Social distancing rules haven’t been relaxed for older young people, although the limit on the number of households Scotland’s 12 to 17-year-olds can meet with has been lifted.
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The First Minister said: “For children who are 11 years old or under, we are removing the requirement for you to physically distance with other people when you’re outdoors.
“That will allow you to play more normally with your friends, which I hope you will enjoy.
“I’m sure this move will also be appreciated by your parents and carers.”
The First Minister also announced that she will relax the two-metre social-distancing rule in Scotland’s pubs, restaurants and shops when the country enters phase three of the route map out of the lockdown.
Sturgeon said the while the Government would “advise that as far as possible” people remain two metres away from others, they would allow “exemptions for specific sectors” as long as “agreed mitigations” were put in place.
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Those mitigations include no propping up the bar and customers must be seated. Pubs and restaurants will be required to have clear systems for safe ordering and payments such as contactless ordering using apps and venues will need to install perspex screens between tables and seating areas.
Bar staff will also need to take drinkers’ names and addresses so that if there is an outbreak, they can be easily contact traced.
All staff will have to wear face coverings.
These changes will come in when pubs and restaurants re-open on July 15. They won’t immediately apply to beer gardens which re-open on Monday.
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