First Minister still "nervous" about potential spike in virus as the lockdown is eased but calls on Scotland to enjoy it as much as is safe
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she has “never been prouder of this country than I am right now” but is still nervous in case people embrace too much freedom after the easing of the lockdown.
Speaking at the daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon ran through a number of new measures in place but particularly underlined how people should go about using the greater freedoms that started today.
She said: “I'm very conscious that this weekend will be the first in quite some time that people will be able to meet up and so I want to take the time to outline once again what the changes are and also the rules that you must follow to stay safe and avoid a resurgence of the virus
“I really hope and expect that these changes will bring some improvement to the quality of our life but I need to continue to stress that they are deliberately and by necessity cautious changes and they have been very carefully considered and assessed.
“I said yesterday that I was nervous ahead of these changes and I have to tell you that that is still the case and the reason for that is this if too many of us change our behaviour a bit more than these changes are designed to allow then we could see the virus by quickly – and that would take his back to square one.
“The consequences of that would be measured not just in more time spent in lockdown and some of these restrictions that we've just lifted being applied again but the consequences would also be measured in lost lives.
“So I'm not trying at all to cramp anyone's fun this weekend, I really do want everyone to enjoy these changes because all of you have more than earned it but I am asking you to please do so responsibly.
“I am appealing to your judgement and to your sense of solidarity to each other, please stay within the rules, apply judgement. We can't obviously give the bespoke guidance for every single individual circumstance.
“But if you remember that the purpose of the rules is to deny the virus bridges to jump across then you yourselves can decide whether or not what you are thinking about doing is sensible or not.
“So continue to limit the people from other household that you see, be rigorous in your hand hygiene and don't allow the virus to spread from you to someone else via a hard surface.
“Above all remember that each and every individual decision that we take will affect the safety and well-being of everyone.
“Recent weeks have been really tough, the toughest most of us can ever remember, and I can't tell you that there is not tough times still lying ahead but I'll tell you this, I have never been prouder of this country than I am right now.”