Swinney warns of tougher restrictions as Scotland’s Covid-19 situation ‘very alarming’

Coronavirus does not show much sign of “abating” in Scotland, the deputy first minister has said, as he refused to rule out tougher restrictions.

Scotland is facing “a very alarming situation” with the virus, according to John Swinney, whose comments come as the country has recorded its highest death toll so far in the pandemic in the last two days, when 93 Scots died from the virus.

Mr Swinney’s comments came as Scotland recorded 1,887 more cases.

Professional sports, along with manufacturing and construction work, h av e been allowed to continue in this lockdown, whereas they were not in the first wave in March.

The deputy first minister said the decisive meeting of the Cabinet last week saw ministers wondering if they had gone far enough to stop the spread.

Mr Swinney said: “I don’t think I’m revealing a state secret when I say that the debate within Cabinet was not whether we were going too far but whether we were going far enough.”

To illustrate the rise, Mr Swinney said Scotland recorded around 130 cases per 100,000 people on Boxing Day, but the figure shot up to 300 just 10 days later.

Despite the new measures put in place, Mr Swinney said: “It doesn’t show much sign of abating.

“We ’ r e seeing case numbers which are hovering around 2,000 per day... so we’ ve got an accelerating situation on our hands and we have to constantly review whether more restrictions are required.”

The total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – is now 4,968.

Scottish Government statistics indicate the daily test positivity rate was 10%, up from 8.7% on Saturday, when 1,865 positive cases were recorded.

A total of 149,766 people have tested positive in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.

There are 1,598 people in hospital confirmed to have Covid-19, up two from 1,596 in 24 hours.

Of these patients, 123 are in intensive care – up by 14 from the previous day.

We’ve got an accelerating situation on our hands

FURTHER STEPS: John Swinney says the Scottish Government has not ruled out introducing tighter restrictions.