Nicola Sturgeon gave an urgent coronavirus update at the Scottish Parliament today, December 21, after cases of the Omicron variant became dominant in Scotland last week.
The First Minister reintroduced the one-metre social distancing rule for the hospitality sector, outlining that all groups of people attending any venue together should keep one metre away from other groups. In addition, people from no more than three different households will be allowed to mix when socialising indoors.
Giving the statement at the parliament, Nicola Sturgeon said: "I can confirm that a requirement for table service only will be reintroduced for venues serving alcohol for consumption on the premises. And we will also ask for indoor hospitality and leisure venues to ensure the one-metre distance, not within, but between groups of people who are attending together.
We will continue to advise people that if they are attending indoor hospitality or leisure venues - and remember our core advice remains to minimise this - there should be no more than three households represented in any group."
The new restrictions will come into force starting from December 27 and will hold for the following three weeks.
The First Minister said that the new measures are necessary to "reduce transmission risk in what are, through no fault of those who run such venues, higher risk environments".
Earlier last week, Scots were urged to stay at home whenever possible and limit their socialising before and after Christmas. Following the news, the hospitality sector was hit with cancellations of events and bookings, resulting in many restaurants and bars closing.
The news comes after a massive rise in Covid cases linked to the new Omicron variant's appearance, which has proven to be "significantly more transmissible than previous variants".
Scotland sees a rapid increase in the daily number of cases - a 50% rise in the past week. It spiked from over 3,500 a day to almost 5,500 a day.
While the rise is evident across all age groups, the 20 to 24-years-old age group saw the most significant increase of 161%.
