Scotland set to go into Covid lockdown from midnight
Nicola Sturgeon has announced that Scotland will go into a Covid lockdown from midnight tonight for the rest of the month, in what is likely a sign of things to come for England.
Sturgeon said the new measures would be “similar to the lockdown of March last year” and could be extended past the end of this month if necessary.
The First Minister told Holyrood: “We have decided to introduce from midnight tonight a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes.”
Schools and places of worship will be shut north of the border and meetings of more than two people from different households will be banned, however there will be unlimited individual exercise allowed.
Everyone in Scotland has been told to work from home, unless they absolutely cannot do their job from home.
Sturgeon said there had been two “game changers” in the past month in the fight against Covid – the two approved vaccines and the new, more virulent strain.
The new strain has led to Covid cases surging in Scotland, with ICU patients now above normal winter levels.
“Without further intervention we could reach in-patient Covid capacity in three or four weeks,” she said.
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“I am more concerned about this situation we face now than at any time since March last year.”
Sturgeon also said Scotland was about four weeks behind where London is in terms of case rates, but that she was calling for the new lockdown now as “prevarication only makes things worse”.
Boris Johnson said today that new restrictions would be soon introduced for England, with a national lockdown now expected.
Cases in the UK hit 54,990 yesterday and 366,435 in the last seven days – a 47.6 per cent week-on-week increase.
Deaths are also surging, with the total now at 75,000.
“If you look at the numbers there’s no question we will have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing those in due course,” Johnson told Sky News.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a national lockdown and so has former health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Neil O’Brien, rising Tory MP and policy adviser to Johnson, has also called for tougher Covid curbs.