NICOLA Sturgeon has said Scotland’s household visit ban is set to remain in place after next week – but also said there are no plans for a full lockdown as Wales announced a circuit breaker.
The First Minister revealed that a nationwide ban on Scots meeting each other indoors is likely to be enforced for the “foreseeable future”.
She also suggested that some additional restrictions may still be needed after another 993 Covid cases were confirmed.
But she said that the Scottish Government currently do not plan to implement a full-scale lockdown – after Wales announced a two-week circuit breaker to curb the spread of the virus.
Speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing yesterday, the First Minister revealed she had spoken to Welsh leader Mark Drakeford that morning – and said he was “absolutely right” to introduce new restrictions if necessary. She said: “It’s for the Welsh Government to take the decisions they think are required and it’s absolutely right for them to do that if they think that is required.
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“We continue to keep all options under review in Scotland, as we always will. I think it’s important to say that we are not starting right now from the same position as Wales.
“We have had, over the period when our schools have been closed, significant restrictions in place that have not been in place in Wales.
“We have had quite substantial closures across our hospitality sector. So we have already taken measures which until now they haven’t taken. We’re in a different position already.”
She added: “It is not realistic to expect that we will go back to normality – for example, the household restrictions will continue to be in place I think for the foreseeable future, and it may be that we need to have some further restrictions over and above that.”
She also told the briefing that discrepancies in the number of Covid-19 cases reported in Scotland in recent days are due to tests being diverted away from the UK Government’s Lighthouse Lab in Glasgow.
The Scottish Government previously warned Sunday’s figure for positive cases should be treated with caution “due to a processing delay within the UK lab system” but a UK Government spokesman denied there were any testing capacity issues.
The First Minister said Scotland had recorded one death from coronavirus and 993 positive tests in the past 24 hours. On Sunday, 316 new positive cases were reported – 11.2% of newly tested individuals – which is significantly lower than in the previous weeks, having not been around this low a level since the 356 reported on September 27.
Sturgeon told the briefing that diversions were due to stop on Sunday and new cases should be included in yesterday and today’s figures.
She said: “This is one reason why, when we consider the number of positive cases, we always look at trends over a number of days rather than at any single day at a time.
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“Our Test and Protect teams will be working to identify contacts of positive cases as soon as the information about them comes into our case management system.”
A UK Government spokeswoman said on Sunday night that claims of a testing capacity issue are “categorically untrue”.
She said: “There is no capacity issue at the UK Government’s Glasgow Lighthouse Lab.
“The Glasgow Lighthouse Lab is highly efficient, with the capacity to analyse tens of thousands of samples a day. Rerouting tests to other laboratories is a routine practice to ensure timely processing.”
Giving a further update on the daily figures, Sturgeon said 47,708 people have now tested positive in Scotland, up from 46,715 on Sunday.
Of the new cases, 362 are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 294 in Lanarkshire, 122 in Lothian and 57 in Ayrshire and Arran. There were 754 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, up 40 in 24 hours.
Of these patients, 61 are in intensive care, down two. The overall death toll of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days is now 2610.
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