ONE of Scotland's top health experts has outlined his "concerns" ahead of eased lockdown restrictions in Scotland and admitted he is still "worried" about Christmas.
Professor Jason Leitch has urged caution with 11 council areas set to move from Tier 4 restrictions later this week.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will today outline which level Glasgow and ten other council areas will be placed into from Friday.
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At the very least non-essential shops, pubs, cafes, and restaurants will be allowed to reopen with restrictions having been shut in a bid to slow down the prevalence of the virus.
Professor Leitch, Scotland's national clinical director, said: "The public health advisors feel there's quite a lot of risk coming and that won't come as a surprise.
"The First Minister has already said Tier 4 will move down so that's around two million people.
"Retail will open and we are slightly concerned about that. The other thing we're worried about is Christmas.
"Those two things together make us cautious about the rest of the changes made today.
"We would ask people not to rush and just to be careful.
"Nothing has changed about the virus other than prevalence has fallen a little.
"Continuing that projection downwards is important to get to a January and February where things look better."
Since being placed under Tier 4 restrictions, the rates of the virus have fallen in Glasgow, dropping to a ten-week low last week.
The latest weekly data showed that for the first time since September, there were fewer than 1000 positive cases recorded over a seven day period.
Meanwhile, Professor Leitch has outlined how Scotland will distribute its doses of coronavirus vaccination in the coming weeks.
He told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland: "We're hoping a lot of them will get done this week. We don't have that much vaccine.
"It's a hopeful day but I am trying not to get overexcited because we don't have that many vials of the actual drug.
"That's just because the factory can't make them as quickly as we would use them. Vaccinators and staff this week. Some of my colleagues, for example, have appointments for later in the week.
"This will also include frontline staff such as A&E staff and ICU staff.
"The plan is Pfizer will gradually distribute it as it makes it just like any other product. As it makes more, it will be able to send that to the United Kingdom holding centre in England.
"They will then be able to distribute that to the devolved nations just like they did over the weekend.
"We're expecting more by the end of December and we're hoping for more up until the end of the month.
"Then we're anticipating a little bit of a gap just because of the manufacturing which is why we're holding back 50% of the vials so we can make sure people get their second dose who get their first dose this week."
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He added: "Two groups of them will first. It's mainly those who are either in hospital - we need to remember we have a lot of over 80s in hospital for non-covid reasons - and then those in care homes.
"People just have to be a little bit patient as we roll out the logistics and get it out to the more rural areas.
"Immunity to covid isn't like a light switch and not like taking paracetamol. When you take the first dose you get a little bit of immunity and when you take the second you get a lot."
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