I VERY much welcome the further easing of restrictions in Scotland in respect of the Covid-19 crisis. However, there is still no sign of the reintroduction of hospital outpatient appointments.

Since the lockdown began I have had three separate appointments cancelled and my wife has had one, and there is still no sign of any resumption. Whilst I appreciate the enormous strain the NHS has been under of late and our debt of gratitude to everyone concerned remains absolute, with the continued decline in coronavirus cases in Scotland the demands on the NHS must be less severe and perhaps more time can now be freed up for routine procedures.

If clinical appointments are not reintroduced soon then the ensuing backlog could potentially lead to untold damage to patient health, leading to further long term demands on the service quite separate from those posed by Covid-19.

Christopher H Jones, Giffnock.

KEEN to go along with the instruction to wear face masks and social distance and help reboot the economy, I have been drawing up a list of places to which I might venture. Top of the definite Nos" are the premises that have decided face visors are good. A waiter or waitress handing over my pint or a hairdresser cutting my hair with such a visor is, to my mind, simply exhaling droplets carefully focussed downwards onto my head or drink.

James Watson, Dunbar.

THE Scottish Government is blamed for discharging elderly people from hospitals to care homes at the start of the Covid outbreak.

The forecast – at the time – was that hospitals would be overflowing with Covid cases, so these people would logically be safer away from hospitals.

It was therefore the correct decision.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinross.

SO Rebecca McQuillan doesn't think that Nicola Sturgeon is guilty of cynically using the coronavirus crisis for political ends ("Sturgeon isn't guilty of stirring the pot for political reasons", The Herald, July 3).

This, in my view, gives the First Minister too much credit for even-handedness; blissfully ignoring that Ms Sturgeon has been "stirring the pot" for so long now that it has apparently become automatic behaviour with barely a thought for the longer-run consequences.

Example: the corner that she has backed herself into with her decision – from the beginning of the coronavirus crisis – that Scotland will "go its own way" in dealing with it; of course, she is now trying to backtrack and get on board with Westminster as fast as saving face permits.

And if walking around in a tartan mask isn't stirring the pot for political ends, I don't know what is.

Philip Adams, Crosslee.

ON social media, Nicola Sturgeon has posted a UK coronavirus cases map and highlights the recent low Scottish rate at 0-5 per 100,000 population. Excellent news. In so doing, she ignores that large swathes of the rest of the UK (in areas totalling a population many times greater than Scotland) boast precisely the same low rate of infection.

Her post attracts more than a few comments along the lines of "shut the Border and keep out the English". Tragically, Covid-19 has resulted in shockingly high death rates north and south of the Border. Local lockdowns such as in Dumfries and Galloway, and Leicester have to be the optimal way forward rather than arbitrary division along a border the virus ignores.

Martin Redfern, Melrose.