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First Minister has said Scotland will have to wait until next week to find out about moving to level zero Covid restrictions


By Ian Duncan

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Nicola Sturgeon.
Nicola Sturgeon.

A decision over whether or not to move mainland Scotland from level one to level zero Covid-19 restrictions has been put back until next week.

The First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, was speaking in Holyrood today as she gave her regular coronavirus briefing to fellow MSPs.

She said cases were continuing to rise and the majority of cases were of the delta variant which was faster transmissible and associated with a greater number of hospitalisations.

However she said that the vaccination programme gave better protection against serious illness.

She said that we should not be complacent about rising numbers of cases and added: "We need to buy ourselves sufficient time for the vaccination to get ahead and to stay ahead of the virus – that is the reason for caution to be exercised at this juncture."

Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would continue to adopt a cautious approach. "I have already confirmed today that no changes will be made this week to the levels that apply in any part of the country," she said.

She said the next full scheduled review of the protection levels would take place next week and it would consider whether any changes would be possible from June 28 onwards – the date it had been expected that restrictions would be eased.

"However, given the current situation and the need to get more people fully vaccinated before we ease up further, it is reasonable to indicate now that it is unlikely that any part of the country will move down a level from June 28," she said.

"Instead it is more likely that we will opt to maintain restrictions for a further three weeks from June 28 and use that time to vaccinate with both doses as many people as possible. Doing that will give us the best chance later in July of getting back on track and restoring the greater normality that we all crave."


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