Nicola Sturgeon thanks virtual Burns supper organisers for allowing Scots to mark Burns Night in line with restrictions

On Monday’s daily coronavirus briefing the First Minister thanked organisers of virtual Burns Suppers for arranging the events to help people stay safe while restrictions are in place.

Monday January 25 marks Burns Night, a celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Burns. While traditionally many would get together to enjoy a Burns supper, gatherings are not possible under the current coronavirus restrictions.

Virtual events took place over the weekend with more on the way on Monday night.

Marking the day, Ms Sturgeon said: “Over the weekend there were some virtual Burns celebrations taking place and I’m sure that there’ll be a few more taking place this evening.

“I’d like to thank everyone who helped arrange those, whether they were major online events for the public, or small scale virtual events for family and friends.”

She added that while virtual events are not the same as physically getting together, they were important in keeping people safe ahead of reminding the public of the current rules.

She added: “Virtual events aren’t the same as getting together physically to celebrate special occasions, but are a really good way of enabling us to stay safe while marking important occasions in the calendar.

“We’ve seen some early evidence that restrictions are working, we’ve seen a reduction in case numbers and there is a bit of time yet for that to feed properly into hospital figures, but we might be starting to see early positive signs there too because so many people are complying with the restrictions.”

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