Deputy First Minister John Swinney is “optimistic” Glasgow will move out of level 3 lockdown at the end of the week.
His comments came after Nicola Sturgeon confirmed the city would face tighter restrictions for another week due to covid infection levels.
Glasgow is currently in Level 3 of the five tiers of restrictions, while the rest of the country is in Level 2.
People in the city are not able to meet others indoors in private residences, hug relatives, or drink alcohol indoors in pubs. Severe travel restrictions in and out of the city are also in place.
In a statement last week, Sturgeon said a decision would be made by Wednesday at the latest on whether Glasgow can move to Level 2 next Saturday.
In an interview with BBC Scotland, Swinney was asked about the Euros football tournament and plans to have a 6,000 daily fanzone in the city, as well as the decision to allow some fans back into Hampden for matches.
It was put to him that the Government would have to lift Glasgow out of level 3 this week if any of these plans are to materialise.
He responded: “That’s what the First Minister said on Friday. That’s precisely what we want to do and that’s the direction we think we are heading in.”
“We think this extra week was necessary to try to give us the advantage of suppressing the virus, but we are optimistic that we will be able to do that at the end of this week, but of course it needs people to sustain the very good engagement there has been over the weekend.”
Swinney also expressed confidence the fanzone would open: “The fan zone as you talk about, they are going to be very regulated environments so there will be significant constraints upon who can get in and what testing has got to be undertaken to enable that to be sustained.
“So combining that with what we do in individual localities to make sure people are taking all the necessary steps to suppress the virus, I’m confident that we can achieve that.
“We can only do that if we follow the sustained approach we have taken to make sure that we keep the virus under control.”
