Scotland’s Deputy First Minister has warned he cannot rule out new covid curbs due to a “concerningly high” infection rates
John Swinney also said there is a risk the deadly virus could spread “very quickly” over the Christmas period.
High vaccine uptake has allowed Scotland to be largely free of lockdown restrictions since the autumn.
Around 4.3m people have received a first dose, 3.9m have had both jabs, and over 1m have benefited from a booster vaccine.
However, stubbornly high infection rates are worrying the Government as they could put huge pressure on the NHS during the winter.
In a statement to MSPs, Swinney suggested further spread could impact on Christmas: “At slightly over 2,500, the number of new cases each day is holding at a concerningly high level.
“The situation is precarious and unpredictable – if the previous pattern, characterised by waves of infection, is repeated, there is a risk that the spread of the virus could, very quickly, increase again during the coming weeks, perhaps over the Christmas period.”
He added that the Government is not yet able to predict with confidence what will happen next, saying:
"It is because we want to avoid more difficult restrictions that we cannot rule out strengthening the baseline protective measures currently in place as the best way to head off any prospect of future lockdowns.”
He explained that one options could be expanding covid passports, which currently apply to setting like nightclubs:
“We have been considering, for example, whether we may need to extend the Covid certification scheme to bring more settings into scope, such as indoor hospitality and leisure settings.”
He added: " Among other possible interventions, we are exploring how we can help improve ventilation; what we could do to increase home-working; and whether changes are needed to extend use of face masks.
"I would stress though that we have not yet taken any decisions about strengthening the existing baseline measures – and we will be discussing options with business sector organisations this week."
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