NICOLA Sturgeon has again urged people without a “genuine essential purpose” for leaving their homes to stay put as mainland Scotland returned to lockdown until at least the end of January.
The pleas came as the First Minister said Scotland had recorded 2529 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours in yesterday’s daily figure, up from 1905 on Monday.
Sturgeon said 11 deaths of coronavirus patients who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days had been recorded, taking the total to 4633.
The latest restrictions came into effect from midnight on Monday in all level 4 areas of the Scottish Government’s five-tier system in a bid to combat further spread of the new, more infectious coronavirus strain.
A legally-enforceable stay-at-home order applies across mainland Scotland and Skye, with people only permitted to leave their home for an “essential purpose”, such as essential shopping, exercise, caring for someone or being part of an extended household. Anyone able to work from home must do so, but those shielding to protect themselves from Covid-19 should not go into work.
Speaking at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing yesterday, the First Minister said: “Staying at home whenever possible is the best way of protecting ourselves, protecting each other, protecting the NHS and ultimately saving lives. Fundamentally, I’m asking everybody to really try hard to stay at home as much as possible, and only leave home if it is for a genuinely essential purpose.”
Sturgeon said around half of new cases are thought to be the new variant, a proportion she said is “rising”. The daily test positivity rate fell 0.2% to 14.8%. The number of hospital patients confirmed to have coronavirus also rose steeply to 1347, up 255 in a week. Of these patients, 93 were in intensive care, an increase of 28.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme earlier on Tuesday, the First Minister said it may be possible to lift the latest restrictions if the vaccination programme manages to push ahead of the virus in the coming months.
She said: “Lockdown is about trying to slow down the virus and push rates of it back down. Now, if we manage to do that, then hopefully we will be able to start lifting some of these restrictions while the vaccination programme is ongoing, even in that first phase of it. But I can’t be certain about that yet, because it’s dependent on us managing to get the levels of infection down.”
The First Minister also appeared on BBC Breakfast, where she said she appreciated how difficult the new restrictions are.
She said: “I understand that it’s really, really difficult, but this is a moment when it’s more important than at any time since March last year for us all to stick rigidly to all of these restrictions, because not only is the virus still out there, it’s out there and spreading faster.”
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