NICOLA Sturgeon has said “urgent” talks are going on at a UK level about possibly restricting international border travel.
Speaking at the Scottish Government Covid-19 briefing this afternoon the First Minister indicated work is progressing on potentially shutting international borders.
Throughout the pandemic the UK has not closed its international borders or required testing on entry as other nations have done.
The UK Government is now under increasing pressure to tackle coronavirus entering the UK through international borders as both Scotland and England announced tight “stay at home” lockdowns yesterday.
Ministers are now considering introducing a requirement for international arrivals to have a negative coronavirus test before travelling to Britain to tackle surging cases.
Senior Cabinet minister Michael Gove said announcements will come in the days ahead on “how we will make sure that our ports and airports are safe”.
“It is already the case that there are significant restrictions on people coming into this country and of course we’re stressing that nobody should be travelling abroad,” he told Good Morning Britain.
Gove said during his series of broadcast interviews that he is in discussions with the devolved governments about the terms of the announcement affecting international visitors.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: “Protecting public health in the UK is of the utmost importance and we are looking at what additional measures could be taken with regards to international travel.”
The SNP's shadow home secretary urged the Government to bring in decisive measures.
Joanna Cherry said: "The UK Government was far too slow to act in the spring, allowing hundreds of thousands of international visitors to enter the country in the middle of a global pandemic without effective measures in place. It seems as though they haven't learnt a thing.
"No one wants to restrict international travel but it is a necessary part of mitigating against transmission.
"The UK Government must stop all but essential travel, and introduce a far more rigorous system of health checks and quarantining at the border. This is a matter of urgency and the Home Secretary must get a grip of the situation."
She added: "Other countries in Europe and across the world have already introduced these measures - leaving the UK as an outlier. For people to have confidence in the UK Government's approach, it is crucial they put these long-overdue measures in place and set out how this will form part of a considered exit strategy."
The news came as Scotland recorded 11 deaths of coronavirus patients and 2529 new cases in the past 24 hours.
READ MORE: Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon announces 11 deaths in update
The death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 4633.
The First Minister told the coronavirus briefing the daily test positivity rate is 14.8%, down from 15% on Monday, when 1905 cases were recorded.
A total of 139,027 people have tested positive in Scotland, with around half of the new cases thought to be the new variant, a proportion which Sturgeon said is “rising”.
There are 1347 people in hospital confirmed to have Covid-19, a rise of 255 in a week.
Of these patients, 93 are in intensive care, an increase of 28 in the same period.
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