NICOLA Sturgeon has dismissed demands to immediately accelerate plans to lift lockdown restrictions in Scotland.
Douglas Ross has led calls for the First Minister to follow Boris Johnson’s more aggressive proposals.
Citing the success of the vaccine programme and falling case numbers, the Scottish Tory leader argued Holyrood should shift its plans forward by three weeks, in line with Westminster.
Unlike the Prime Minister, who earmarked June 21, Ross did not set a date for lifting all of the main restrictions. Nonetheless, he condemned the Scottish Government for being what he considers overly cautious.
The First Minister responded to such calls at her coronavirus briefing. She explained data was being continuously monitored to “see what we can do as quickly as possible” and said she was in constant dialogue with her health advisers.
“I'll continue to do what I've done which is stand here and give people frank assessments as we're able to give them.
“It's for Boris Johnson to explain where the June 21 date comes from. I hope by the time we’re into the summer there’ll be significantly more normality, and on a whole host of things, but for me to stand here right now and give certainty about that, given all of the uncertainties and unpredictability of this, I don’t think I would be treating people fairly.
“So I'll continue to try to set things out on a firm basis when I'm able to do that.”
She added: “I'm not able to see right now whether things planned for May 17 may be brought forward so I'm not going to speculate on that at this stage.”
📺 Watch live: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gives an update on plans to return to full-time education after the Easter holidays.
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) April 6, 2021
Joining the First Minister is Chief Nursing Officer Amanda Croft and National Clinical Director Jason Leitch. https://t.co/4LBVe5UtRv
READ MORE: Douglas Ross demands faster end to lockdown despite third wave warning
Sturgeon stated that she will give another briefing on April 20 and said by that point she hopes “to give more certainty” on plans to ease lockdown on April 26 and mid-May.
As it stands, restrictions on hospitality, leisure and outdoor sports are due to be lifted in Scotland on May 17, with pubs, restaurants and cafes allowed to reopen with a closing time of 10.30pm.
But Ross wants to bring these plans forward three weeks, to April 26, with the exception of indoor gatherings.
It comes after Boris Johnson announced he would be “going to the pub myself” when beer gardens reopen in England on April 12 under the Tory administration’s more aggressive lockdown easing plans.
Ross wrote: “Despite the positives, the SNP still have us on the same timetable, a slower timetable than anywhere else in the UK. Faced with a more optimistic scenario than even the experts predicted, Nicola Sturgeon has done nothing. She kept Scotland stuck with the same old plan.”
But the First Minister was eager to stress the dangers of accelerating the lockdown timetable.
She said: “People understandably look at falling case numbers, deaths and hospitalisations and say ‘why don't we just ease up a lot more quickly’. The problem is, the reason that the cases are falling is because we have these restrictions in place. So as soon as you start to ease the restrictions, you run the risk of the virus running out of control again.
“Now, you can't have the restrictions in place forever, it's just you've got to get the timing of that date right. If you do it too quickly, the danger is the virus will run ahead of the vaccine, and we'll be back to square one.”
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