Glasgow could see an easing of coronavirus restrictions next week if an increase in cases and hospital admissions does not translate into extra pressure on intensive care beds, Humza Yousaf has said.
Glasgow is the only part of Scotland still in level three, and some businesses have criticised the decision to keep it under stricter measures.
The new Scottish Health Secretary said ministers wanted to ease restrictions as soon as possible and hoped after this week it would become clear whether case numbers had led to a rise in ICU patients.
Yousaf said the “critical question” is whether infections caused by the new Covid variant, so-called Indian variant, lead to more severe disease.
Speaking on the BBC Sunday Show, Yousaf said: “The really critical question with the vaccine rollout is: does the new variant lead to more hospitalisations and more severe disease which then requires admission into ICU."
He added: “If the answer to that is no - and I hope the answer is no - then of course we can look at what we can do in terms of easing restrictions in future.
“But I promise you, none of us takes any joy from keeping any part of the country under restrictions from a minute longer than necessary.”
Glasgow is the only area in Scotland to remain in Level 3 of Scotland’s coronavirus restrictions, with the highest coronavirus rates in the country at 126.7 per 100,000 people in the seven days to May 19.
People aged 18 to 39 who live in postcodes G41, G42, G5, G51 or G52 in the southside of Glasgow are being offered coronavirus jabs early as public health authorities tackle a surge in cases in those areas.
Yousaf said: “What this week will hopefully allow us to do is to see whether we continue to see a rise in hospital admissions but also to see whether that translates into more severe disease that would need admission to ICU. I hope not.”
The Health Secretary also said he wanted to speed up the vaccine rollout and take a more “proactive” approach to getting people immunised, especially with second doses as research shows that the first dose of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are only 33 per cent effective against the Indian variant three weeks after the first dose.
Yousaf : “That enhances the importance of the second dose.”
“I do believe there’s a possibility of maximising our vaccine uptake particularly second doses among those priority groups so although we’re doing very well with the rollout I think there is scope in the coming weeks to increase the number of vaccines we’re administering per day, per week.”
