Scotland will be plunged back into a national coronavirus lockdown from midnight this evening, Nicola Sturgeon announced this afternoon.
The SNP leader said the new crackdown, lasting all of January, will include a legally enforceable stay-at-home rule.
Exercise and essential journeys will be the only reasons why people will be allowed to leave their homes.
The planned reopening of schools on January 18 is also being pushed back to February 1 while workers are being instructed to work from home wherever possible.
Rules on outdoor gatherings will be tightened to allow a maximum of just two people from two households to meet outdoors.
Meanwhile, places fo worship will be closed from this Friday but weddings and funerals will be allowed to go ahead.
A maximum of 20 people will be allowed to attend funerals and a maximum of five people will be allowed to attend weddings.
Ms Sturgeon said the tough new curbs are necessary because of the ‘steeply rising’ rate of infections north of the border as she warned the lockdown could be extended beyond January if necessary.
The measures effectively mean a return to the restrictions seen during the first UK-wide lockdown which was imposed at the end of March last year.
All of mainland Scotland is already placed in the highest tier of Covid-19 rules but Ms Sturgeon is further strengthening the measures amid a ‘rapid increase’ in infections.
Yesterday Scotland announced 2,464 new cases of the disease, with the latest figures for hospital admissions and deaths not due until Tuesday.
Ms Sturgeon’s announcement will be closely watched by Downing Street and is likely to prompt speculation that England could soon be forced to follow a similar path.
Nicola Sturgeon today announced that Scotland will go into a new national lockdown from midnight this evening
The Scottish Parliament has been recalled from its Christmas break to debate Ms Sturgeon’s latest Covid-19 restrictions.
It is just the fifth time ever that Holyrood has been recalled and the second time within the last four weeks after it sat on December 31 to consider Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade deal with the EU.
Ms Sturgeon set the stage yesterday for rolling out tougher coronavirus curbs as she tweeted: ‘The rapid increase in Covid cases, driven by the new variant, is of very serious concern.
‘The steep increases and severe NHS pressure being experienced in other parts of the UK is a sign of what may lie ahead. So we must take all steps to slow spread while vaccination progresses.
‘We, like other countries, are in a race between this faster spreading strain of Covid and the vaccination programme.
‘As we work to vaccinate as quickly as possible, we must also do more to slow down the virus – to save lives and help the NHS care for all those who need it.
‘Following a meeting of the Scottish government resilience committee yesterday to assess latest situation, the Cabinet will meet tomorrow am to consider further action to limit spread and I’ve asked for Scottish Parliament to be recalled tomorrow afternoon so that I can set out our decisions in a statement.
‘All decisions just now are tough, with tough impacts. Vaccines give us way out, but this new strain makes the period between now and then the most dangerous since start of pandemic.
‘So the responsibility of government must be to act quickly and decisively in the national interest.’
The planned reopening of schools in Scotland on January 18 is expected to be pushed back under Ms Sturgeon’s latest measures.
The Christmas break has already been extended to January 11 in Scotland, with teaching due to resume online until January 15.
Ms Sturgeon previously said that the ‘planning assumption’ was for schools to resume face-to-face learning on January 18.
All of mainland Scotland is now in Protection Level 4 – the highest tier in the Scottish government’s current coronavirus rules system.
Level 4 restrictions ban separate households from mixing inside homes while a maximum of six people from two separate households are allowed to meet outdoors.
All pubs and restaurants have to close apart from for takeaways and all non-essential shops must shut.
People in level 4 areas have also been told not to travel outside the boundaries of their local authority unless it is essential.
The expected toughening of rules in Scotland came as the UK Government begins its roll-out of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine today.
Holyrood has been recalled for just the fifth time in its history today as Scottish MSPs discuss additional Covid-19 measures
In the biggest UK mass vaccination drive ever, half a million doses of the jab will be made available for vulnerable people this week with ‘tens of millions’ promised by April.
AstraZeneca has previously suggested up to two million doses a week could be ready by mid-January.
But Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at University College London and a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said it could take longer to hit that number.
He told Good Morning Britain today: ‘Due to capacity issues it may be we don’t get to those levels until February for example. The earlier we can vaccinate people the better and the sooner will be able to control this.’
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘This is a pivotal moment in our fight against this awful virus and I hope it provides renewed hope to everybody that the end of this pandemic is in sight.’