Scottish Government working towards easing lockdown but no timescale given

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has sketched out the first stages of easing the lockdown measures at her daily briefing where she revealed that 26,000 people are estimated to carry Covid-19 – twice the number of confirmed cases.

She stressed that it is unlikely there will be any relaxation when the lockdown is reviewed UK-wide on Thursday, but confirmed that preparations were being made towards that end by the Scottish Government.

Ms Sturgeon explained that progress to combat coronavirus so far was “real” but “fragile” and there were fears that lifting the lockdown could lead to an exponential increase in the transmission of the infection.

Despite being unwilling to give a time frame, the government is looking at a variety of scenarios that would see a partial return to normality while still preventing the spread of the virus.

They include:

• allowing exercise outdoors more than once a day apart from others not in the same household.
• Allowing small, defined and limited groups of people from different households to meet in “bubbles”.
• Looking at the “fairness” of allowing some people out but not those currently shielding.
• When to resume some NHS and community care services like screening programmes and non-urgent elective procedures.
• How to carefully and safely allow businesses in construction, retail and manufacturing sectors and also to some outdoor and rural businesses to reopen.
• How to allow children to gradually return to school in different groups, part-time or in blocks of a few days or a week at a time.

The First Minister said: “I want to briefly set out the options that we are working on and again I must stress that none of these changes we are implementing as of right now.

"To allow exercise outdoors to happen more than once a day so long as we continue to stay apart from people outside our own households.

"Second, we're also considering a slight relaxation in the rules to allow meeting up with a small defined group of people from other households...

"And also how the limitations of it could be enforced if necessary – it is also something that is not possible for those who are currently shielding so we have to think also about the fairness of it.

"The third area we are looking at is, when and in what order we can resume some NHS and community care services; as you know we stopped some services, for example screening programmes and non-urgent elective procedures, to ensure that the NHS could cope with the virus.

"But these postponements also have implications for health, so we must consider how these services can be restarted as soon as possible and that is what we are currently doing.

"The fourth area is how we very carefully and safely allow businesses to reopen; that is a major area of work for obvious reasons.

"We need to work with business and with trade unions to consider the practical arrangements for different work environments to start up safely.

"That includes changes to working practices, physical layouts of workplaces, the appropriate use of PPE and the operation of public transport. On this we're looking carefully at the work the UK Government is doing and consulting with our own stakeholders.

"Initially we are giving particular consideration to businesses in construction, retail and manufacturing sectors and also to some outdoor and rural businesses, however, where home working is possible we are very likely to insist on that for the foreseeable future.

"The Deputy First Minister is chairing the education recovery group which is considering options for how people make gradually return to school.

"A return to school might not be possible at all this side of the summer holidays but we are considering whether some groups of students such as vulnerable children, children who are making the transition from primary to secondary school or who are studying for national qualifications could return to school ahead of others.

"And any initial return to school when it does happen, is of course, likely to require a mixture of time in school and learning at home.

"For example it is possible that different groups could attend school part time in blocks of a few days or a week at a time to enable physical distancing and deep cleaning of schools between sessions."

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