NICOLA Sturgeon this week spoke of “continued caution” as Scotland looks towards further moves out of lockdown.
The number of new cases across the country have almost doubled in the last month – however the number of hospital admissions has not yet risen as quickly as in previous occasions.
The “fragile” position meant no further changes to lockdown restrictions across the country, with mainland Scotland still in Level 2.
When is Nicola Sturgeon’s next lockdown update?
The First Minister is set to provide an update to the Scottish Parliament on Monday, June 21.
During this stage, she’ll set out expectations as to whether any further easing of restrictions can go ahead.
Following that, an announcement is due on June 28 – which was the initially scheduled date for a country-wide move to Level 0.
What can we expect by then?
Ms Sturgeon said she “still has the optimism” she felt when Scotland’s routemap was set out, because of the rising numbers of vaccinations across the country.
This comes despite a “fragile” situation with case numbers in Scotland, largely dominated by the Delta variant of the virus – the variant first discovered in India.
It is, however, unlikely that the country-wide planned move to Level 0 on June 28 will go ahead – but it may see a move for some more mainland areas to move down a Level in restrictions.
What has the First Minister said?
Commenting on rising numbers of cases, Ms Sturgeon said on Tuesday: “This will partly be a consequence of restrictions easing – it is always the case that as we start interacting more, the virus does have more opportunities to spread - but the recent rise is also being driven by the more transmissible Delta variant, which now accounts for the majority of all new cases being reported.
“However, although cases are rising, the key question is the extent to which vaccination is weakening the link between the increase in new cases, and an increase in serious health harms.
“We continue to assess the data very closely - and, at this stage, we remain optimistic that vaccination will allow us to move progressively to a less restrictive way of dealing with the virus.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel