Nicola Sturgeon today warned that she will make her mind up about adding more regulations next week as Covid-19 infections continue to increase.
Ms Sturgeon announced that in the last two weeks there has been an increase in new infections from just over 2,500 new cases a day, to approximately 3,000 cases a day.
READ MORE - Nicola Sturgeon LIVE: FM to give urgent Covid update today as new rules considered
The First Minister was speaking at her latest Covid-19 briefing when she announced that the Scottish Government are currently considering “amendments to the regulations on certification.”
Scotland’s Covid-19 certification scheme allows people entry to various services and also to travel abroad but the Scottish Government are considering changes to the scheme to help stop the spread of he virus.
Ms Sturgeon said: “It is the strong view of the Scottish Government that this - together with the other measures still in place - makes an important and proportionate contribution to stemming transmission.
“The value of certification is also recognised in other countries, many of which require certification for access to a much wider range of services than is currently the case in Scotland.
“Wales, for example, expanded the scope of its scheme yesterday. It now applies to theatres, cinemas and concert halls, in addition to the same range of venues as in Scotland.
“The Cabinet discussed possible changes to the current certification scheme at our meeting this morning.
“We will take a final decision next Tuesday in light of the most up to date data.”
The Scottish Government are considering including testing as an alternative to proof of vaccination and increasing the reach of the scheme to include more settings, like cinemas and theatres.
They will publish an evidence paper this week to give people an insight into the merit’s of changing the certification scheme, and say any changes that do come in will introduced at the start of December.
The First Minister continued: “So we will be assessing in the coming days whether, on the basis of current and projected vaccination uptake rates, we are now in a position to amend the scheme so that in addition to showing evidence of vaccination to access a venue, there will also be the option of providing evidence of a recent negative test result.
“This is already a feature of many other countries’ certification schemes.
“We are also considering whether an expansion of the scheme to cover more settings would be justified and prudent given the current state of the pandemic.
“Again let me stress that we have not at this stage taken a decision to extend the reach of the scheme.”
