NICOLA Sturgeon is set to announce whether more Covid restrictions will be lifted in Scotland.
On Monday, 60,000 football fans went to Celtic Park to see the Hoops beat Hibs in the first match to be held with a large crowd in weeks, as Scotland continued to loosen restrictions introduced as Omicron swept across the country.
The First Minister is being urged by the opposition to go further in her statement to MSPs later on Tuesday.
This is everything you need to know.
What rules are still in place?
Current restrictions on businesses put a cap of 100 on indoor standing events and 200 on seated events, enforce table service for alcohol-selling businesses and mandate social distancing between groups.
As part of the relaxation of rules allowing large outdoor events, organisers of those with crowds of 1000 or more are now required to check the Covid passports of at least half of the attendees, and the classification of fully vaccinated changed from two to three jags.
What changes can we expect?
Sturgeon has remained tight-lipped on what she will announce to Holyrood, but said Scotland was “in a better position than I feared we would be before Christmas”.
“Looking at that data right now, we’ve got reasons to continue to be cautiously optimistic that we’re turning the corner on this Omicron wave,” she said.
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“That’s because people have responded magnificently, they’ve behaved in a way that’s helped stem to some extent the transmission of Omicron and we took sensible, balanced, proportionate steps.”
What time is the FM’s speech?
Sturgeon’s speech is expected shortly after 2pm in the Scottish Parliament.
It will follow two topical questions, one from LibDem MSP Willie Rennie and another from the SNP’s Jim Fairlie.
Following her statement, opposition leaders will be given time to question the First Minister.
How to watch it
You can watch live coverage of the announcement on The National’s Twitter and Facebook pages.
We will also run a liveblog to keep you up to date.
Alternatively, the speech will be broadcast on the BBC Scotland channel from 2.15pm.
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