Scotland is to relax its lockdown rules early to allow up to four people from two households to meet outside from Friday, Nicola Sturgeon announced today.
They will be allowed to gather for ‘social and recreational reasons’, including in home gardens, on March 12 – three days earlier than previously planned, the First Minister said.
For children aged between 12 and 17, outdoor meetings will also be limited to four people, but these can be from up to four households.
Outdoor, non-contact sports for adults in groups of up to 15 will also be able to start again from Friday, Ms Sturgeon said.
Ahead of a wider announcement on easing the Scottish lockdown that she will make next week the First Minister also said that religious buildings will be allowed to open for communal worship from March 25.
Congregations of up to 50 people will be allowed to meet as long as there is space for social distancing, in a move designed to allow the celebration of Easter, Passover and Ramadan.
Currently only two people from different households are allowed to socialise outdoors in Scotland.
That was due to increase to four people from March 15, but has been moved to the nearside of the coming weekend to allow the public to get out a little more.
The statement to Holyrood this afternoon will heap pressure on the PM to step up his own relaxation – although it is already more ambitious than Scotland’s.
Two households should be allowed to mix outdoors in England from March 29, and schools returned in full from yesterday.
Ms Sturgeon said her government ‘will not hesitate’ to ease restrictions earlier if data supports it, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Scotland is to relax its lockdown rules to allow up to four people from two households to meet from Friday, Nicola Sturgeon announced today.
Cases have been falling in Scotland as the lockdown and vaccine rollout takes effect
The First Minister told MSPs on Tuesday: ‘If the data allows us to relax more restrictions more quickly than we have previously indicated, we will not hesitate to do so.
‘I’m well aware of just how difficult continued restrictions are – and I know that they get harder rather than easier to bear, as time goes on.
‘I also know – because I feel this too – that the progress on vaccination makes us even more impatient to reach the end of this ordeal as quickly as possible.
‘But I am certain that easing restrictions too quickly would be a mistake that we would regret.’
On Friday Ms Sturgeon indicated ‘good progress’ with the vaccination programme and the falling number of infections could mean that ‘greater normality is firmly on the horizon’.
She said then she was ‘hopeful’ the Scottish Government may be able to make some ‘relatively minor, but I think important, changes in our ability to meet outdoors and also how young people are able to interact with their friends outdoors’.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney confirmed yesterday that Ms Sturgeon is considering changes – with tweaks being signed off by her ministers this morning.
He added: ‘The First Minister has been clear that we will try to relax lockdown as quickly as we possibly can do, but we have to do it in a sustainable manner.
‘That means taking the appropriate steps in the appropriate sequence to make sure we don’t run the risk of the virus running away from us again.’
The easing of Scottish lockdown restrictions began in February when children in the first three years of primary, as well as nursery youngsters, were able to return to the classroom.
Older primary children have been expected to return to school full time from next Monday, March 15 – with secondary school pupils also to get some time back in the classroom from this date, before returning full-time after the Easter holiday.
Last night Mr Johnson dismissed Tory calls to end lockdown sooner as Britain recorded fewer coronavirus cases than at any time since late September with 4,712 more positive tests.
The 65 more deaths caused by Covid-19 was the lowest number since October 12, and marked a drop of 38 per cent since last Monday. Cases fell by 14 per cent in a week.
Mr Johnson yesterday hailed a ‘big and emotional day’ as schools reopened, one-on-one social meeting were allowed outdoors, and indoor care home visits were permitted in England.
But the Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs said it would look ‘odd’ if the country is still in lockdown next month if cases and deaths keep heading downwards.
Boris Johnson held a press conference today to hail the ‘first step on the roadmap’ as schools across England reopened, indoor care home visits were brought back and people allowed to socialise outdoors in pairs
Dr Jenny Harries, Public Health England’s deputy chief medical officer, told a Downing Street press conference that the data show a ‘pleasing picture’.
But she warned said infection rates across the UK were now back to where they were in September but warned: ‘This is the level at which a new wave could easily take off again from.’
Dr Harries said there is ‘still a substantial strain on the NHS, and not one we can afford to rise from again’.
Mr Johnson said he was embracing a ‘big budget of riskby reopening schools, admitting it was inevitable that letting children back into classrooms would cause cases to rise, and refused to budge on his ‘cautious but irreversible’ road map.