Scottish lockdown could continue beyond January, says Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon has warned there isn’t any certainty the lockdown across mainland Scotland shall be lifted on the finish of January, or that faculties will reopen.
The first minister mentioned there was no definitive reply on when restrictions would finish because it trusted the newest surge in circumstances subsiding considerably. Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has indicated that England’s lockdown could last until March.
There have been “inherent uncertainties” with the pandemic, Sturgeon informed BBC Radio Scotland.
She linked the easing of restrictions, which got here into power at midnight on Monday, with the roll-out of vaccinations, however admitted the federal government was nonetheless ready for affirmation about deliveries. “The focus when supplies allow is to get people vaccinated because that’s the way out of this,” she mentioned.
By the top of January, they have been assured of getting 900,000 doses accessible for folks within the prime classes of these in line for the vaccine – the over-80s and frontline well being employees – with massive batches of the 2 vaccines due later within the month. It was potential much more doses could arrive in January.
The forecast was that by early May, about 2.7 million folks on the precedence lists from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation – involving all these over 50 and people underneath 50 with particular underlying well being situations – would have had their first dose.
However, she mentioned: “We don’t yet have certainty about delivery schedules after January, but that is firming up all the time.”
Asked whether or not that meant the lockdown would final till May, she mentioned: “No. Not necessarily. I can’t be definitive right now about when we will lift these restrictions.”
If the lockdown succeeded in suppressing the virus “then hopefully we will be able to start lifting some of these restrictions while the vaccination programme is ongoing, even that first phase of it. But I can’t be certain about that yet, because it is dependent on us managing to get these levels of infection down again.”
The query of faculty closures can be reviewed on 18 January. “I really hope the situation will have improved to the extent we can say children can go back into school buildings on 1 February but I can’t be 100% certain about that,” she mentioned.
The Scottish authorities can also be in talks with universities about additional suspending the return of scholars to campuses. While Scottish universities had organised a phased return of scholars throughout January, that was now underneath assessment.
