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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announces travel ban with the rest of the UK as the Highlands will enter Tier 4 restrictions from Boxing Day





First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced a range of strict new "preventative" measures to combat a virulent new strain of the Covid virus.

They include a travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK and the whole of mainland Scotland will enter Tier 4 restrictions from Boxing Day.

Announcing the restrictions, Ms Sturgeon said the new measures "make her want to cry."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon

The travel ban means that no one from Scotland should exit the country into one of the other three home nations nor should anyone in the other three nations enter Scotland.

All of Scotland except the islands will also enter Tier 4 restrictions from Boxing Day for three weeks, including the Highlands.

However, the previously announced relaxation for Christmas Day will go ahead with strong encouragement to meet outdoors as much as possible.

That relaxation would only be available for that one day and not overnight, so travel would have to completed within that one 24 hours period.

And the FM recommended people not to meet up unless they felt it was essential.

She also called on people to ramp-up their personal efforts to follow the rules on hygiene and social distancing.

The changes were agreed in a cabinet meeting in response to a new highly contagious strain of Covid.

It is estimated that the new strain can be as high as 70 per cent more contagious than the previous one.

She said: "This is the most serious situation and juncture since the start of the Covid pandemic.

"It may seem inappropriate to talk about upsides, the upside right now is that we can prevent that serious situation from materialising.

"We still have a chance of acting in a preventative manner.

"There is strong evidence that the new strain is spreading substantially and significantly more quickly than the strains of the virus we have seen up until now.

"That evidence suggests that it could be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than previous strains of the virus.

"But if we do act now then we do have a chance of keeping things under control while the vaccine programme makes progress.

"The action we propose is designed to do two things, it is designed to stop the new strain from entering Scotland from parts of the UK where it is already circulating.

"And second, given that we know it is already present in Scotland then it is due to stop it spreading any further here.

"Firstly, we are asking everyone to redouble to their personal efforts at following the rules.

"That means: staying out of each others houses, abiding by travel restrictions, keeping a safe distance from people from other households, following the hygiene advice really, really strictly.

"Secondly, prevent more of this strain being imported into Scotland then we intend to maintain a strict travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK."

That ban will remain in place throughout the festive period. Cross-border travel for all but the most essential purposes must be enforced.

She said: "We will also be reviewing urgently the position on on international travel and I will have an update on that early next week.

Given the concern we now have about this new strain we intend to change the law to allow indoor mixing

Already, Wales has announced a full lockdown starting from midnight tonight as plans cancelled for all but Christmas Day.

Earlier, the First Minister announced on Twitter that the Scottish Cabinet would meet following a four nations call earlier in the day to discuss the new strain of the Covid virus.

It is believed the new variant is spreading faster than the previous one and so poses obvious risks to people contracting the infection.

But she moved to calm fears about the current state of the infection in Scotland, by saying it was not as prevalent north of the border.

She wrote: “Following a four nations Covid call earlier, I’ll chair a Scottish Government Cabinet meeting this afternoon to discuss emerging evidence on the new variant.

“Cases currently at lower level in Scotland than rest of UK – but preventative action may be necessary to stop faster spreading strain taking hold.”

Ms Sturgeon cited comments from the UK government’s chief medical officer which said: “The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory group considers that the new strain can spread more quickly.

“There is currently no evidence to suggest that the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that if affects vaccines and treatments although urgent work is underway to confirm this.”


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