Nicola Sturgeon announces 11 local authority areas – including the city of Glasgow – will be moved into Scotland’s toughest coronavirus level from Friday as she warns infection rates are staying ‘stubbornly high’
Nicola Sturgeon today announced 11 local authority areas will be moved into Scotland’s toughest coronavirus level as she warned infection rates are still ‘stubbornly’ high.
The First Minister said the 11 council areas, which includes the city of Glasgow, will be subject to level four restrictions from 6pm on Friday.
People living in the level four areas will be banned from meeting with other households indoors while only essential shops will be allowed to stay open.
Ms Sturgeon said her message to people in those areas is that they ‘should not be going out and about’ for as long as the restrictions remain in place.
As well as the 11 areas being elevated to level four, two areas are being moved from level three to level two while 19 will experience no change.
Nicola Sturgeon today announced 11 local authority areas are being moved into the toughest coronavirus level from Friday
The announcements came as Ms Sturgeon said restrictions on household gatherings put in place in recent weeks have helped to control the spread of coronavirus.
She told MSPs the country had been on track to record 3,000 new cases per day if action had not been taken.
She said: ‘That has not happened. Daily case numbers are almost a third of that.
‘Prevalence in Scotland is also lower than in other UK nations.
‘So we have made progress, but the overall level of infection remains higher than we need it to be. And the national picture is masking significant regional variation.’
Ms Sturgeon also revealed that the total number of deaths from Covid-19 in Scotland will pass 5,000 this week.