Covid in Scotland: Scottish cabinet to consider further measures

The Scottish cabinet will meet on Monday to consider further measures to help tackle coronavirus.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has asked for parliament to be recalled so she can make an "urgent statement".

Ms Sturgeon said the "rapid increase in Covid cases driven by the new variant" was of "very serious concern".

"We are in a race between this faster spreading strain of Covid and the vaccination programme," she added in a tweet.

She warned on Friday that the next few weeks could be the most dangerous period for Scotland since March in the fight against Covid.

"All decisions just now are tough, with tough impacts," Ms Sturgeon wrote on twitter. "Vaccines give us way out, but this new strain makes the period between now and then the most dangerous since start of pandemic."

The Scottish government's emergency resilience committee heard on Saturday that "quick and decisive action is needed" as the new variant of the virus is becoming the dominant one in Scotland.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: "The even steeper rises and severe pressure on the NHS that is being experienced in some other parts of the UK is a sign of what may lie ahead in Scotland if we do not take all possible steps now to slow the spread of the virus, while the vaccination programme progresses.

"The strong message remains - people should stay at home as much as possible and avoid non-essential interaction with others."

Public health expert Prof Linda Bauld, from the University of Edinburgh, has said Scotland should be prepared for Covid restrictions to be extended as infection rates continue to rise.

The latest government figures show a further 2,137 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Scotland on Friday, although the rate dropped below Thursday's 2,539 cases.

Prof Bauld said there were no signs yet that the infection rate was levelling off, having risen suddenly from a daily rate of fewer than 1,000 to more than 2,000 per day in recent days.

On Saturday, she told BBC Scotland: "It definitely is a fragile situation and you can see that we have more cases than we would expect at the current time.

"We may be starting to see some of the impacts of the Christmas mixing, but also we know around four in 10 cases, from recent data, are of the new variant.

"I would imagine that the new variant is playing a role in these higher rates of infection and if these numbers continue to sit at where they are we are going to have more people in hospital in a week or two's time, and that is very worrying."

Prof Bauld added that this would bring "real challenges" for hospitals, especially in the central belt and said it was "absolutely imperative that we do not see these number rise more than they are now".

"Mentally we just need to be prepared for the fact that we may be living with the level four restrictions for longer than the Scottish government currently plans," Prof Bauld said.

She said the new, more transmissible coronavirus variant would make it harder to get the R number below one in Scotland and schools may not be able to fully reopen on 18 January.

Daily confirmed cases in Scotland reached record highs on the last three days of 2020, rising to to 2,622 on Thursday.

Ms Sturgeon warned last week there might be changes to the plans for reopening schools. Children start online learning from 11 January and are set to return to class by 18 January.

The education recovery group will meet on Monday.