A SCOTTISH public health expert said it is the “right time” to gradually open up hospitality venues.

Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh told Times Radio that the risk outdoors is “really very low” and at least 20 times less than indoor hospitality.

She said: “Indoors is more risky, where households are mixing – now that doesn’t mean that hospitality is more risky as a venue than a number of other indoor environments.

“But we’re in a very good position now, the vaccines are assisting us and it is the right time to gradually open up, I do support doing that in stages.”

Meanwhile, Moray is currently experiencing a coronavirus outbreak with its rate of cases significantly higher than the rest of the country. The case rate in the area is 96 per 100,000 people, for comparison the second highest case rate in Scotland is in East Ayrshire with 36.9 per 100,000 people.

A mobile testing unit arrived in Elgin on Friday as part of moves to reduce the spread of the virus and asymptomatic people are being encouraged to take regular tests.

The news comes as Scotland yesterday recorded 224 new cases of coronavirus but no deaths in the previous 24 hours. The test positivity rate also remained at 1.2%. So far 2,883,384 people have received the first dose of a vaccine and 1,450,798 have received their second dose.