NEW RAY OF HOPE FOR SUMMER
Sturgeon ‘optimistic’ as figures drop before next review of lockdown rules
SCOTLAND is expected to take further steps out of lockdown next week after a series of key virus indicators fell to their lowest level in nearly five months.
Nicola Sturgeon said she is hopeful more outdoor meetings will be able to get the green light when she reviews lockdown measures next Tuesday.
Teenagers could also be allowed to resume outdoor activities such as non-contact sport.
The First Minister yesterday said she is ‘really optimistic’ that more normality can return soon if progress continues.
And she said travel restrictions, including the ban on non-essential travel, may be eased ahead of summer – allowing Scots to reunite with friends and family across the UK and enjoy staycations.
The first fast-tracked steps out of lockdown will be announced on Tuesday, Miss Sturgeon said.
She added: ‘The good progress of the vaccination programme and also the declining number of people catching or falling seriously ill with Covid should give us all real encouragement just now that greater normality is firmly on the horizon.
‘I am hopeful that next week we might be able to make some relatively minor changes to the rules around our ability to meet people outdoors and also to how young people are able to interact with their friends outdoors.’
The Scottish Government’s plan for moving out of lockdown, published last week, said four people from two households may be able to meet outdoors some time after March 15, when non-contact outdoor group sports could also resume for 12-17-year-olds.
Latest figures yesterday showed there were 498 new cases in the previous 24 hours – the lowest daily total since September 27.
Although Miss Sturgeon warned things can quickly turn in the wrong direction and urged people to stick with the current rules, she said that continuing to suppress the virus while the vaccine does its job means ‘we can be really hopeful that there are definitely, at long last, better days lying ahead’.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Thursday that he is optimistic cross-Border travel restrictions can be eased to allow people to enjoy a ‘great British summer’ anywhere within the UK.
Asked if Scotland might be able to follow the route map for England, where overnight stays for people in the same family can resume as early as April 12, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I don’t know yet.
‘But if we continue to do this properly, have a bit of discipline, stick with it, then I am optimistic that, over the period as we go into the summer, lots of these things start to become possible again.’
An analysis of recent figures showed the four key virus prevalence indicators – cases, positivity, hospitalisation and deaths – have declined rapidly.
The seven-day average fell to 70 per 100,000 people, which is the lowest since the end of September, just short of the 50 per 100,000 rate where the virus is judged to be under control.
Over the past seven days, the daily average for people admitted to hospital with the virus was 50, which was the lowest since October 14.