First Minister stresses no easing of lockdown yet
Scotland’s First Minister has stressed that the easing of the lockdown in England does not apply north of the border as yet.
On Sunday evening Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued his road map out of lockdown and encouraged those who could not work from home should now return to work if it was safe to do so.
The move sparked some criticism and has forced Nicola Sturgeon to underline that Scotland’s stay at home message remains in place and self-isolation must be maintained or else "more people will die".
Ms Sturgeon also revealed that the government would offer more help to get the country through the pandemic with the publication today of its second Coronavirus Bill.
She said: “That proposed legislation includes a range of further measures to help Scotland through this pandemic.
“Amongst many other things, the Bill provides additional support for unpaid carers; it ensures that Carer's Allowance recipients will receive an extra payment on top of the Carer's Allowance supplement that is paid to unpaid carers in Scotland.
“This new payment will see around 83,000 carers receive an additional payment of £230 next month to support them through this difficult period. Being a carer is incredibly demanding at the best of times and I know that it is much more difficult right now.
“Last night the Prime Minister set out some of the details of his plan for easing restrictions in England, more of the details of that isn't this morning and will continue to come during the course of today.
“I want to reiterate that those announcements do not apply yet here in Scotland, that is not – let me stress for any political reason – it is because the Scottish Government is not yet confident that these changes can be made safely in Scotland yet, without running the risk of potentially running out of control again.
“So Scotland’s lockdown restrictions remain in place for now and our key message remains the same – we need you to stay at home. We do not at this point want to see more businesses opening-up or more people going to work.
“We do not yet want to see more people using public transport and we're not yet changing who can or should be at school. The only change we made here in Scotland is to the guidance on exercise in Scotland.
“As I said yesterday, we've removed the once a day limit on exercise, it means that if you want to go for a walk more than once a day or to go for a run and also a walk you can now do so.
“That change doesn't apply if you or someone in your household has symptoms of the virus or if you have received a letter explaining that you are in the shielded group, in these cases wou should still stay at home completely.
“For everybody else you still need to stay relatively close to your own home while exercising at all times and at all times please stay at least two metres away from people from other households.
“By exercise we do mean activities like walking or running or cycling and not at this stage sunbathing or having a picnic, this really doesn't give people a licence to meet up at the park or at the beach.
“Let me just reflect for a moment on why this matters. I read this morning about the tragic story of a family from Castlemilk in Glasgow. Andy Leerman has told how his mum, dad and father-in-law died from this virus, and he talks too of the impact on his nine-year-old daughter.
“The story is heartbreaking, it is heartbreaking for them, but what all of us should reflect on is that it could be any one of us – that family have told their story because they want people to listen to the advice that we are giving.
“They say this and people need to realise that this is real, the guidelines that are set out need to be followed, it may be there next and their families and we would not want anyone to go through what we have had to go through. Stay in the house and social distance– that is the way to keep people you love safe.
“I think that is a very powerful message and underlines the importance of the restrictions and why we need to stick with them for now.”
