First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has put pressure on the Government as she sets out plans for Scotland to end its lockdown
Nicola Sturgeon will announce the plans that will see an end to the current Scottish lockdown restrictions that were put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement is to be made morning, this is following the Government saying that social distancing could continue until 2021, and other experts saying that it could last until 2022.
Sturgeon has stressed that the strict lockdown measures currently in placer were still “absolutely necessary”, but has said that Scotland needs “to chart a way forward” by setting out plans on how to exit the lockdown effectively.
This move from the Scottish First Minister, comes as New Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, requested that the UK government announce plans to end the lockdown in the nation by last week.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Sir Kier said:
“WE’VE GOT TO HAVE THE TRUST OF THE PUBLIC,”
The First Minister revealed Schools in Scotland may soon be re-opening part-time, with social distancing precautions still in place.
She told Heart Radio:
“We might have kids going back to school for certain days a week.
“We may have to have children in a classroom so that we can have social distancing.”
Sturgeon’s announcement will come shortly after the Government’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said that it’s possible that the UK might have social distancing measures in place until next year 2021.
Dominic Raab, The UK’s Foreign Secretary, have previously set out the conditions the UK would need to meet in order to end the lockdown measures
The Foreign Secretary went on to list five points that will influence the government’s decision:
- Making sure the NHS can cope
- Evidence showing a sustained and consistent fall in daily death rates
- Reliable data showing the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels
- Being confident in the range of operational challenges, like ensuring testing and the right amount of PPE, are in hand
- Being confident any adjustments will not risk a second peak
The Government has said they will not begin to talk about how the lockdown will end until these five conditions are met because they don’t want to “muddy the water” by mentioning an end to the lockdown measures.
Last night Professor Chris Whitty told the nation that we are still at least weeks away from seeing a significant decline in numbers.
Professor Whitty said: “We are working with a disease we are going to be with globally for the foreseeable future.”
“(There are) lots of options which ministers will have to consider.”
He continued by saying the key to ending the current lockdown precautions in the UK, was to slowly ease measures over time, in such a way where no infected person is infecting manyone else.
