No reprieve as the lockdown is set to continue and schools remain shut at least until mid-February as First Minister says infection rates remains too high and the NHS is coming under real pressure
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
There will be no end yet to the lockdown despite “cautious reason for hope” while schools will remain closed at least until mid-February, the First Minister has confirmed.
Nicola Sturgeon said that the cabinet will review the situation again on February 2 but both the lockdown and the return of schools is unlikely to happen before the middle of next month.
The reasons for the decision given by the First Minister are the increasing "real" pressures on the NHS with another surge in hospitalisations expected on the back of the number of new cases in recent weeks.
This comes as clinicians across the country are occupied dealing with the annual upsurge in illness that comes with the winter as well as trying to roll out the vaccines.
Ms Sturgeon said: “The pressure the NHS is facing right now is real and severe and it is, of course, having a significant consequential impact on non-Covid elective care.
“The number of new cases in the past couple of weeks also means that this pressure is almost certain to rise for a further period yet.
“All that means is that we cannot afford to see the rate of infections start to rise again, which from such a high baseline it could all too easily do if we start to interact more with each other than we are doing right now.
“So it is for all these reasons that the cabinet decided this morning to maintain the restrictions which are currently in place. That means that the lockdown restrictions, including the strict stat at home requirement, will remain in place across mainland Scotland and some island communities until at least the middle of February.
“Cabinet will review the situation again on the second of February.”
On schooling the Ms Sturgeon that there was no clear date that she can be certain of to even announce the phased return of classroom teaching as it still was not safe.
Instead, she said it was much more likely that schools would remain shut at least until the middle of February at which point she hoped to get a better idea of a date of the return.
“A reluctant judgment at this stage is the community transmission of the virus is too high and is likely to remain so for the next period to allow a safe return to school on February 1,” she said.
“The cabinet, therefore, decided today that except for vulnerable and key worker children school and nursery premises will remain closed until mid-February.
“We will review the situation again on February 2 and I hope that we can set out then a firmer timetable for getting children back to school.
“I can say this today, if it is at all possible, as I very much hope it will be, to begin even a phased return to in school learning in mid-February, we will do that bit I also have to be straight with families and say that it is simply too early to be sure about whether and to what extent this will be possible.”
