Nicola Sturgeon: Scotland on 'advance notice' for potential 'fire breaker' restrictions to halt Covid-19 spread

The First Minister has said this weekend is a “critical point” for the country.

Scotland has been given "advance notice" of upcoming changes to Covid-19 restrictions, said Nicola Sturgeon

Scotland has been given “advance notice” of likely tighter restrictions including a potential “circuit breaker” lockdown being introduced next week, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister, speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing, said the country was at a “critical point” and that this weekend would be key in deciding what comes next.

Ms Sturgeon added that she had asked the UK Government to convene a meeting of COBR, the group which deals with national emergencies, which has not met since May 10.

Criticisms of the lack of UK Government engagement with the devolved nations put forward by the Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford were described by Ms Sturgeon as “correct”.

Mr Drakeford also confirmed a meeting of SAGE on Thursday pushed the view a brief second lockdown might be required to halt the spread of the virus.

She said she could not remember the last time she spoke to the prime minister Boris Johnson, something she said “maybe tells its own story” but added four nations discussions with Michael Gove have been “helpful”.

The First Minister added that the UK is on a similar trajectory to France – which this week saw daily cases rise about 10,000 – and sit about four weeks behind on the curve.

The national clinical director Jason Leitch warned that the Scottish Government was viewing the situation as “amber”, warning that further restrictions would be needed to stop the situation becoming more serious.

Both said more restrictions are likely to be needed to stop the virus’ spread becoming exponential, with a potential ‘circuit breaker’ or ‘fire breaker’ lockdown for a couple of weeks being described by Ms Sturgeon as “the kind of things we are thinking about”.

The First Minister said: “Today I want to give the nation advance notice, that the coming days are likely to see some hard but necessary decisions.

"If we want to avoid another full-scale lockdown - which we all do - doing nothing almost certainly isn’t an option.

“This weekend will be critical in the assessment of how best to do that.”

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