First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reiterates that moves to ease Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown in England do not apply in Scotland
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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 gave details of his "road map" out of lockdown, including easing up on travel restrictions, allowing people from different households to socialise under certain conditions and calling for people who cannot work from home to be "encouraged" to return to work.
At this afternoon's Scottish briefing Nicola Sturgeon said the "stay at home" message still applies north of the border and said self-isolation must be maintained or else “more people will die.”
She said: “I want to reiterate that those announcements (by Boris Johnson) 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, without running the risk of (the virus) 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."
She added: “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 you 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.
The First Minster also outlined some of the content of the second Coronavirus Bill for Scotland which will be published today which, she said, included measures to improve financial support for carers.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Amongst many other things that 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."
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