Nicola Sturgeon has hit out at Boris Johnson's government for not closing borders early enough to prevent the spread of the Delta variant.
The First Minister laid part of the blame at the door of the UK Government for the likely delay of lockdown restrictions in Scotland.
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament earlier today the SNP leader announced that she would make a statement next week on a 'Freedom Day'.
However, she warned that restrictions are expected to be delayed for a period due to rise in cases and hospital admissions across the country.
Over the last month there has been a rise in cases due to the Delta strain, which originated in India.
Due to the rise some council areas have been kept in Levels for longer than previously expected.
As a result testing and the vaccine programme have been ramped up to stem the spread of the deadly virus that has claimed the lives of more than 7,600 Scots.
After giving an update on the covid situation the FM took questions from MSPs. In response to a question from Glasgow Cathcart James Dornan SNP MSP Sturgeon to a swipe at the UK Government.
She said: "There is no doubt, I don't think I'm the only person that will say this.
"The lack of very robust border controls in recent months has, I think has been a factor in the situation that we're dealing with right now and that is deeply frustrating we are where we are.
"So we have to all of us take a responsibility for navigating our way through this, but if we cast our minds back to mid February the Scottish Government decided to insist on mandatory managed quarantine for all direct arrivals into Scotland, regardless of what country they came from, that would have included India.
"At that time despite our pleading the UK government only insisted on managed quarantine for red listed countries.
"It took until the latter part of April to put India on the red list.
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"I said many times people have helped me see it that that left us with a serious vulnerability of people coming into the UK to English airports and travelling to Scotland, and therefore not being caught by our managed quarantine arrangement.
"We pleaded with the UK Government to put common provisions in place across the UK but we also pleaded with them, to introduce a situation where people coming into an English airport but intending to go to Scotland would be made to quarantine at the point of arrival.
"Michael Gove, I think wrote to the transport Secretary back in February, refusing point blank to do that.
"They wouldn't and I'm quoting legally treat people differently in England based on their final destination within the UK.
"I do have a deep frustration about this, but we are where we are and we have to deal with this, but there is no doubt at all that too lax border controls around the whole of the UK have played a part in where we are right now."
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