Nicola Sturgeon confirms Scotland WILL return to a tiers system of rules when its national lockdown is eased but ministers say Boris Johnson will focus on ‘a gradual reopening of the whole of England’ under his strategy
- Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed Scotland will return to geographic levels system
- The levels system will be re-introduced when the national lockdown is loosened
- Boris Johnson is not expected to re-introduce the old tier system in England
- Ministers said this morning the PM wants ‘gradual reopening’ of all of England
Nicola Sturgeon today confirmed Scotland will return to a tiered system of coronavirus restrictions when its national lockdown is eased.
The Scottish First Minister said the geographic levels system will be brought back, with different parts of the country subject to different rules, depending on things like case numbers and deaths.
Ms Sturgeon, who will unveil her lockdown exit roadmap tomorrow, said she was taking a ‘cautious way forward’ to ensure measures are lifted in a way that is sustainable.
Her post-lockdown approach will be different to that taken by Boris Johnson in England, with the PM not expected to announce a return to tiers under his strategy.
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said this morning Mr Johnson wants to see the ‘gradual reopening of the whole of England, not regional’.
Nicola Sturgeon today confirmed that Scotland will return to a tiered system of restrictions when the national lockdown is eased
Addressing her daily coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon said: ‘We will seek to set out tomorrow an indicative order of priority and the likely phasing of firstly the gradual lifting of the current lockdown restrictions and then in due course, a return to the geographic levels system when we would decide whether all or parts of the country may move out of Level 4 and into Level 3, and of course that’s the part where more parts of the economy will start to open up.
‘This will be a cautious way forward because it’s really important that as we come out of this lockdown, we do so sustainably.’
The old levels system in Scotland was split into five different tiers, ranging from Level 0 to Level 4.
Areas in Level 4 were subject to restrictions close to that of a full lockdown, with non-essential shops closed while six people from two households could meet outdoors.
Level 0 was as close to normal life as possible, with people allowed to meet indoors with eight people from three households and businesses allowed to open with safety measures in place.
Ms Sturgeon announced that Scotland had recorded 715 new coronavirus cases and no deaths in the past 24 hours. The death toll in Scotland is currently 6,950.
The SNP leader said Scotland’s test positivity rate stood at 6.6 per cent, up from 5.5 per cent the previous day.
There are 1,141 hospital patients with recently confirmed Covid-19, a rise of nine in 24 hours, with the number in intensive care remaining unchanged at 99.
Boris Johnson is set to formally unveil his lockdown exit strategy for England this afternoon
Meanwhile a total of 1,445,488 had received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, an increase of 13,546 from the previous day.
Mr Zahawi today suggested that England will not be put back into tiers under Mr Johnson’s lockdown exit strategy.
Asked if the tier system would return, he told LBC Radio: ‘I think because the way this new variant actually took hold, which has become the dominant variant, the Kent variant, in the United Kingdom, infection rates around the country pretty much rose to similar, very high, unsustainable levels.
‘So the view is very much that this is about a gradual reopening of the whole of England, not regional.’