Free school meals through the summer holidays
The First Minister says the Scottish Government will be extending its free school meals project throughout the summer holiday period.
Nicola Sturgeon made the announcement at her daily briefing shortly before the UK Government made a U-turn following a campaign by Manchester United player Marcus Rashford.
She said: "We know families are under considerable financial pressure just now and free school meals are a vital help to many, but they're also really important to the health and wellbeing of children.
"We will provide #12.6 million in funding to local authorities to enable the continuation of free school meals during the period from the end of June to the start of the new term in August.''
The First Minister said the funding would be allocated "in a way that allows councils, as many of them do, to co-ordinate school meal provision with wider support that they make available to families''.
She added that £15 million will also be made available to councils to continue to provide extra support to those in severe poverty or who face other barriers to accessing food.
No change to lockdown exit plan
Commenting on the latest jobs statistics published on Tuesday, which show an increase in unemployment from 3.5% to 4.6% between February and April in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon said that dealing with Covid-19 has "created an economic crisis which demands our full focus and attention''.
She added that, regardless of the issues with the economy, Scotland should remain cautious in its easing of lockdown measures to ensure that the virus does not run out of control.
The First Minister said: "Difficult though all of this is, we must guard against a reckless relaxation of lockdown measures.
"If we ease measures too quickly and allow the virus to run out of control again, that would be economically counterproductive, but would also cost many more lives.''
Daily Figures
A total of 2,453 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by five from 2,448 on Monday.
18,045 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 15 from 18,030 the previous day.
There are 986 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, an increase of 116.
Of these patients, 19 were in intensive care, an increase of one.
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