First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced in Parliament today that the current coronavirus lockdown will remain in place until at least the end of February.
This means the ‘Stay at Home’ order will remain in place. However, careful easing of restrictions may begin at the beginning of March.
The First Minister said cases numbers are currently still too high, but suggested there is evidence the current lockdown restrictions are working.
However, Sturgeon has warned of fragility of the situation in Scotland right now.
She said: “This progress is down to compliance with the lockdown restrictions.”
Sturgeon added: “That means that if we were to ease restrictions too quickly, there is a real risk that infections would rise again very quickly,”.
Also, the risk of the new variants of Covid is still a threat.
Discussing the South African variant in Scotland, the First Minister confirmed that there have been five cases detected.
Sturgeon also stated that the cases of the South African variant have been linked to travel, with none so far linked to community transmission.
Additionally, she announced ‘Managed quarantine’ is to be introduced in Scotland.
This will be a requirement for anyone travelling directly into Scotland – no matter which country they have come from.
The latest Scottish Government figures show another 758 people have tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total in Scotland to 181,291.
A further 69 deaths related to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours have been reported, taking the total to 6,181.
Jeane Freeman, the Scottish Health Secretary, also announced that from 8.30am today 610,778 people across Scotland have received their first dose of the vaccine.
