PM’s Covid approach ‘an exception’, says Sturgeon in plea for caution

The UK Government's approach to dropping coronavirus regulations “is something of an exception'', Nicola Sturgeon said as she stressed she and her ministers will have to “think carefully about what steps we do take at this juncture''. The Prime Minister has promised to tear up most of England's coronavirus regulations at Step 4 of the road map on July 19, but Scotland's First Minister said many protections will be retained north of the border.

Ms Sturgeon told a Scottish Government coronavirus briefing on Thursday that current high case numbers are concerning, but there is a “suggestion that the recent surge in cases may be to some extent levelling off''.

Case numbers are now 1,432 lower than they were last Thursday, she said, adding that the seven-day average also appears to show a “slowdown in the rise of positive cases''.

She added: “This is encouraging news but obviously case numbers remain high and that is a worry.''

Ms Sturgeon warned “we cannot simply throw all caution to the wind and no longer worry at all about rising levels of infection'', citing concerns about pressures on the NHS which have already led to some services being cut back.

She also said the majority of cases are in young people and although they tend to have less severe infections, it would be “wrong and irresponsible, because our young people are not guinea pigs, to have no concern at all for young people infected with this virus''.

The First Minister said she hopes all of Scotland will be able to move to Level 0 by July 19 as planned, but a decision on whether and to what extent this can happen will be announced at Holyrood on Tuesday.

She said: “It is worth pointing out the path the UK Government is embarking on for England - which is entirely a matter for them - a path of not just lifting all restrictions from July 19 but also removing the requirement for basic mitigations like face masks, and doing so against the backdrop of sharply increasing case numbers, is something of an exception.

“While I totally understood the desire some have for us to follow suit in every single step, we have to think carefully about the steps we do take at this juncture.

“My job is not to take the easy decisions in a quest for popularity, it is to do what I think is most likely to keep the country as safe as possible as we get to the end of the vaccination programme.

“Over the next few weeks, as we complete the vaccination programme, it is really important that we don't let the virus outrun us.''

Ms Sturgeon also gave an update on the daily figures, announcing Scotland has recorded four deaths of coronavirus patients in the past 24 hours and 2,802 new cases.

The death toll under this daily measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - is now 7,744.

The daily test positivity rate is 8%, down from 10% the previous day.

A total of 401 people were in hospital on Tuesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 14 in 24 hours, with 38 patients in intensive care, up four.

So far, 3,800,864 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 2,825,886 have had their second.

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