By Ben Kerrigan
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has formally extended Scotland’s coronavirus lockdown, saying it was too soon to make meaningful changes without risking a resurgence of the virus.
Ms Sturgeon warned that easing any restrictions would be “very, very risky”.Ms Sturgeon is due to speak to Mr Johnson later on Thursday, and said she “will not be pressured into lifting restrictions prematurely, until I am as certain as I can be that we will not be risking a resurgence in infection rates”.
Surgeon wants to see the four nations of the UK to move together, but said any decisions “must be taken with great care” that she would “continue to err on the side of caution”.Earlier in the day, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman told Holyrood’s health committee that the infection rate in Scotland remained too high to give much room for manoeuvre.
Ms Sturgeon said it was thought the infection rate in Scotland “might still be higher than in other parts of the UK”, possibly reflecting the fact that the first cases of Covid-19 north of the border came later than in England.
She said: “Extreme caution is required at this critical juncture to avoid a rapid resurgence of the virus.
“It is not an exaggeration to say decisions now are a matter of life and death.”The paper warns that there are still approximately 26,000 infectious people in Scotland, with the number “much too high at present to consider the virus under control”. Provisional plans for lockdown easing in Scotland could see people leave their homes more often, while staying within their local area and only mixing with their own household group.
Officials are also considering whether people could be allowed to meet with “a small number of others” from outside their household, initially in “a group or ‘bubble’ that acts as a single, self-contained unit. These could be outdoor meetings at first. Scottish police are emphasising the need for the Scottish people to stay at home and save livesMs Sturgeon said what is known as the “R number” – the average number of people someone with the virus passes it on to – could be “hovering” around one, and she was not confident it is “comfortably below” that number yet.She added dropping the “stay at home message” next week would be “potentially catastrophic mistake”.