CMO says 'now is not the time' to ease lockdown for most vulnerable
People in the shielded categories in Scotland still don't know when they'll be able to leave home
Scotland’s chief medical officer says it’s too early to ease lockdown restrictions for people most at risk from coronavirus.
Those who are classed as “shielding” haven’t been able to leave their homes at all since March.
The UK Government has announced those in the shielded categories in England are now able to go outside with friends or family from the same household, but Dr Gregor Smith said he believes that “it's just not the time” to change the restrictions for the most medically vulnerable north of the border.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Government would be issuing updated guidance “in a couple of weeks” and added: “Before we change that advice, we want to make sure that we have given proper and full consideration to it.”
PHD student Josh Phillips has Crohn’s Disease, and hasn’t left his Glasgow flat since March. He told us it hasn’t been easy: “I’ve not been able to go outside at all for the past 10 weeks.
“My building doesn’t have any outdoor space and I live on a busy main road, so it’d be very difficult to keep my distance from other people.”
The 27-year-old also worries if people don't follow the new guidance, coronavirus could get out of control once again. He said: “If anything, lockdown measures being lifted now will mean that it will remain unsafe for me, and everyone else in my position, for far longer.
“I’d feel far safer if measures hadn’t been lifted.”
Scotland's Health Secretary Jeane Freeman also revealed the Government was looking at whether there is “clinical justification to offer slightly different advice” to those with different conditions within the shielded group.
Under the current guidance, those who are extremely vulnerable should not leave their homes and are asked to minimise all non-essential contact with other members of their household.
Speaking at the government's coronavirus briefing, Dr Smith said that, from studying the epidemiological evidence in Scotland, the number of infection cases would make it too risky to allow restrictions to be eased.
“This is a group of people who have been particularly on my mind because of the special burden that they've had to endure over the last umpteen weeks,” he said.
In a message to people having to shield, Ms Freeman said: “We want to take the right amount of time to get our advice to you as right, as appropriate and as clear for as we possibly can.”
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