NICOLA Sturgeon is being urged to provide answers to justify the extent of coronavirus lockdowns in Scotland.

Aberdeen city council leaders have written to the First Minister requesting a copy of criteria for the localised cornavirus actions being taken as they believe they and other areas were being unfairly penalised.

The coronavirus outbreak which led to a local lockdown in Aberdeen was declared officially over by health chiefs at the start of September.

Bars, cafes and restaurants shut on August 4 after a spike in Covid-19 cases linked to the city's nightlife.

Restrictions were fully lifted at the end of August after three weeks.

NHS Grampian said its incident management team had concluded that the cluster linked to the city's hospitality sector had ended.

More than 260 cases were associated with the cluster.

No such shutdown was brought in in Glasgow when lockdown restrictions were introduced in September 1.

Seven days later the health board said coronavirus cases linked to pubs in Glasgow increased after the restrictions on visits to other homes were reintroduced.

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NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC) said numbers of positive tests were on the up in the city’s hospitality sector, although there were no major outbreaks.

Restrictions on household visits – unless under exceptional circumstances – covered Glasgow, East Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire.

Nicola Sturgeon had said that evidence pointed to transmission taking place mostly between different homes, but that an eye would be kept on the hospitality sector across the west of Scotland.

Aberdeen City Council co-leader Douglas Lumsden said: "I have just written to the First Minister today asking for greater transparency on how the decisions are being made when it comes to local lockdowns.

"Obviously for Aberdeen we had quite a severe local lockdown and that is why I am surprised that Glasgow didn't have the same degree of lockdown as we had up here, especially as their infection rates are the highest in the whole of the UK."

He told Northsound: "We are looking for the notes that came out from the local incident management team in Glasgow to see what their recommendations were, to try and understand why the decision for the lockdowns were completely different in the two areas."