John Swinney says Covid 'circuit breaker' has not been recommended for Scotland

A two-week mini-lockdown for Scotland, to get rising Covid cases back under control, has not been recommended to the Scottish Government as being required, it has been revealed by John Swinney.
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The Deputy First Minister told MSPs while there had been growing speculation about a “circuit breaker” event and the “concept” was being explored by government scientists in the SAGE group, “no decisions have been taken to take such a step, nor have we had evidence saying such a move would be required”.

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Speaking at Holyrood’s Covid committee, Mr Swinney was backed by Professor Jason Leitch, who said a “circuit breaker was not an answer” if cases continued to rise and instead what would be needed would be “whole population measures all the time”.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Education Minister John Swinney exit the lift. Picture: Russell Cheyne - WPA Pool/Getty ImagesScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Education Minister John Swinney exit the lift. Picture: Russell Cheyne - WPA Pool/Getty Images
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Education Minister John Swinney exit the lift. Picture: Russell Cheyne - WPA Pool/Getty Images
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Yesterday Nicola Sturgeon said she had “not taken a decision on a circuit breaker”, but the government was “keeping it under review”, as she confirmed another 222 coronavirus cases, bringing the number of positive cases in Scotland to 27,798 since the start of the pandemic.

Quizzed by Scots Tory MSP Donald Cameron on a mid-October “circuit breaker”, Mr Swinney said: “The government looks carefully on a daily basis and indeed several times a day, at the progress of the epidemic. So we are constantly considering whether there's a need for us to take more or less action depending on the prevalence of the outbreak.

"The question of some form of circuit breaker in October has been suggested to us by evidence from SAGE. I wouldn't say it was a specific proposition, it was more the raising of the possibility that if the pandemic continues to grow at an accelerated rate there may be a necessity to take some interruptive action to try and slow further and more aggressively the development of the pandemic.

John Swinney has said a "circuit breaker" event has not been recommended.John Swinney has said a "circuit breaker" event has not been recommended.
John Swinney has said a "circuit breaker" event has not been recommended.

"No decisions have been taken for that to be the case. The suggestion has been made… but it would depend on two fundamental elements being made more certain, whether there was a necessity for such an interruptive action of that type, and secondly some detailed work on what that might involve. No decisions have been taken to that effect.”

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Asked if the circuit breaker could involve school closures, Mr Swinney added: "The last thing I want to do is close schools. We've gone to a great deal of effort to reopen our schools and in general that has gone well and there's very little evidence of transmission of the virus in schools. In October there are planned school breaks, but I want to sustain full time education for children and young people.”

Prof Leitch said the circuit breaker idea was about "buying time” over two to three weeks to get the virus case numbers down in preparation for winter.

He added: “Nobody has ever done a circuit breaker. The model suggests that if you have a stay at home order for 14 days you could buy yourself 28 days of lower rises in the pandemic. But you then have to make a choice about whether that's the right thing to do... and the implications for the economy and society.

"A circuit breaker is not the answer, the answer is whole population measures all the time until science gets us out the other side.”

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