Scottish level restrictions set for reform, says Jason Leitch

The Scottish Government’s lockdown levels system could be reformed after the current restrictions end, Jason Leitch has said.
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The national clinical director said the geographic breakdown on which levels were assigned may be different, with discussions ongoing within the government’s Covid teams.

Speaking to the Scottish Parliament’s Covid-19 committee on Thursday, Professor Leitch said levels may be redrawn once the current ‘stay-at-home’ lockdown ends.

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He also suggested that schools would not return on a geographical basis in areas where virus levels are low and said instead that a full school return of pupils of all ages would be “on a national level”.

School children in Scotland may all return at the same time, Jason Leitch has said.School children in Scotland may all return at the same time, Jason Leitch has said.
School children in Scotland may all return at the same time, Jason Leitch has said.
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Currently, only P1 to P3 children will return to school on Monday, with no date set for when others will go back to the classroom.

Prof Leitch said: "Yesterday, the seven-day average for Scotland was 102, which is very good progress, if slow. But that had massive regional variation.

"In East Ayrshire, it was over 300, Clackmannanshire, it was 241. A total of 13 local authorities were over 100. We have to be cautious about what these geographic units are, whether that should be local authority collections, or local authorities or health boards.”

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Cabinet minister Mike Russell said the idea was being discussed.

He said: “I think it is fair to say that this is one issue which is under consideration. I don’t think that discussion is [yet] at the stage where we will say what will happen. In some areas, local authority areas covered enormous parts of the country.

He said: “The local authority levels were important, but there are things about the size of each unit which need to be looked at again.”

He pointed to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) own levels, which said that for a country to be in level two, it needed to have a test positivity level below five and cases below 50 per 100,000.

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Level one, under the WHO’s criteria, states test positivity of below two and cases below 20 per 100,000.

Prof Leitch said that he hoped to send school children back at the same time.

He said: “We would much rather do schools nationally if we can. It seems like the right thing to do for the wellbeing of children.”

However, in her daily briefing, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that she would not hold back children in low risk areas from starting school.

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Prof said although he had “sympathy” with island communities with low virus levels hoping to get out of lockdown ahead of the mainland, the health and social care system in remote communities posed problems.

He pointed to a recent situation in Barra when patients had to be airlifted to Stornoway and the mainland for treatment following a rapidly spreading outbreak.

He said: “The counter argument of that is the nature of the healthcare and social care systems and the speed of transmission.”

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