RESTRICTIONS could be eased in Glasgow if an increase in cases and hospital admissions does not translate into extra pressure on intensive care beds, Scotland's new health secretary has said.
Humza Yousaf said the "critical question" is whether infections caused by the new Covid variant "April-02" - the so-called Indian variant B1.617.2 - lead to more severe disease.
Speaking on the BBC Sunday Show, Mr Yousaf said: "The really critical question with the vaccine rollout is: does the new variant lead to more hospitalisations and more severe disease which then requires admission into ICU.
"If the answer to that is no - and I hope the answer is no - then of course we can look at what we can do in terms of easing restrictions in future.
"But I promise you, none of us takes any joy from keeping any part of the country under restrictions from a minute longer than necessary."
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Mr Yousaf noted that hospital admissions had been increasing in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde region.
There were 41 patients in hospital on Friday with a recent positive test, up from 21 last Sunday, but only four Covid patients in ICU Scotland-wide.
Mr Yousaf said: "What this week will hopefully allow us to do is to see whether we continue to see a rise in hospital admissions but also to see whether that translates into more severe disease that would need admission to ICU. I hope not."
The Health Secretary also said he wanted to speed up the vaccine rollout and take a more "proactive" approach to getting people immunised, especially with second doses.
A report from Public Health England has shown that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines give high protection against infections caused by the Indian variant, but were only 33% effective against the Indian variant three weeks after the first dose.
"That enhances the importance of the second dose," said Mr Yousaf.
"I do believe there's a possibility of maximising our vaccine uptake particularly second doses among those priority groups so although we're doing very well with the rollout I think there is scope in the coming weeks to increase the number of vaccines we're administering per day, per week."
Around 30% of adults in Glasgow have had both vaccine doses to date.
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Mr Yousaf also defended the decision to keep Glasgow under Level Three restrictions, saying it was a "difficult balance".
"I can completely understand why people in Glasgow are feeling somewhat despondent...
"The reasons we took those decisions for Glasgow are because we feel they are absolutely necessary, in particular to contain the new variant - the April-02 variant - of the virus which is thought to be more transmissible and if we control it now it means hopefully we will avoid future lockdowns in the months to come."
Mr Yousaf said the "relatively small" number of cases in East Renfrewshire - of around 17 to 19 per day - were easier to contain.
"The difference in East Renfrewshire is that there is not significant community transmission of the new variant in the way that we see in G41, G42 and some of the southside of Glasgow.
"That's really key because the public health officials can contain those relatively small number of cases within those domestic settings."
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