LOCKDOWN restrictions are set to be eased after Nicola Sturgeon confirmed yesterday that the continued fall in coronavirus cases was giving grounds for “cautious optimism”.

The First Minister said primary children would return to school next week as planned, along with more senior secondary pupils.

Children in primaries 4-7 will join their younger classmates back in school from Monday. She also confirmed that up to four adults from two households will be able to meet outside from today.

Sturgeon spelled out the changes to restrictions as she revealed the latest Covid-19 figures showing 22 people had died from the virus and 591 positive tests were recorded in the past 24 hours. It brings the death toll under this measure – those who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 7483.

She said the new cases reported yesterday represented 2.5% of all tests carried out, which took the total number of confirmed cases to 207,747. A further 556 people were in hospital – 26, fewer than Wednesday – and 42 people were out of intensive care, a fall of seven.

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“I regret however to report that a further 22 deaths have been registered of people who first tested positive in the previous 28 days, and that means the total number of people who have died under the daily measurement is now 7483. And once again, I send my deepest condolences to everyone who has lost a loved one,” she said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Covid-19 a pandemic 12 months ago and marking the one-year anniversary, Sturgeon said there were now some grounds for optimism “The last 12 months have been incredibly tough – unimaginably tough for everybody,” she said. “But as I indicated on Tuesday, we do now have real grounds for optimism, albeit cautious optimism.

“Case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths have all fallen in recent weeks and when we publish the latest estimate of the R number later today we expect it to show that it remains below one. And, of course, the vaccination programme has given a first dose to 40% of the entire adult population and it is set to significantly accelerate over the next few weeks.”

As of yesterday morning, she said 1,825,800 people had received the first dose of vaccine, an increase of 16,642, and 141,433 people have received the second dose, a rise of 8673 since Wednesday.

She told MSPs the Scottish Government would go ahead with the next stage of the re-opening of schools on Monday. Sturgeon said: “In addition, changes to the rules on outdoor meetings and activities which I set out on Tuesday will come into force tomorrow and, as I have indicted, next Tuesday I will provide more information about our plans for the phased reopening of the economy.”

She said this will take into account the positive news but will also acknowledge the risks faced by new variants. Tuesday will also see changes announced to the levels system of coronavirus restrictions, which is due to come into force from the end of April.

Meanwhile, Chief Constable Iain Livingstone has said coronavirus has cost Police Scotland around 140,000 working days in terms of officer and staff absences, Over the course of the pandemic, there have been about 19,000 individual instances of officers and staff needing to take time off because of Covid-19.

The latest forecast from the force is that coronavirus will add £6.7 million to its day-to-day running costs for the 2020-21 financial year, with this including £3.5m for personal protective equipment and hygiene, and £2m on overtime.

Additional costs of £2.6m have also been incurred for cleaning and decontamination, the chief constable said, adding that the force’s income is also projected to be lower because of the pandemic.

But Livingstone, who included the figures in a letter to Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee, said the overall impact of Covid-19 on revenue costs had been “mitigated by an additional £8.2m funding from the Scottish Government”.

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This, together with action by the force’s management to reduce costs, means its full-year deficit is now expected to be around £36m.

In the letter, Livingstone told how Police Scotland has “implemented measures to ensure that officers and staff in essential public-facing roles do not attend for duty when they may be a risk to others”.

He said absence levels had “fluctuated in the previous 12 months”, adding those linked to the pandemic had been and remain “challenging”. However he insisted the situation is being “managed effectively”.

Figures covering the period between March 18 2020 and February 17 2021 show a “significant increase in absence levels between mid-March and early April”, when coronavirus first hit.

Absences increased to a peak “in excess of 3700 at the end of March” last year – almost four times higher than March 2019 when there were “around 1000”.