Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that Glasgow will move down a level of Covid controls to level 2 from Saturday, with residents able to hug, drink alcohol indoors and meet in each other’s homes for the first time in eight months, as she slowed the easing of restrictions elsewhere across central Scotland.
Scotland’s largest city had remained in the second-toughest lockdown regime, with an additional travel ban in place, while the rest of the country’s restrictions were relaxed, after the rapid spread of the Delta variant in the southside of the city.
Scotland’s first minister said that rising infection rates meant that 13 other local authority areas across the central belt – Edinburgh and Midlothian, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire, all of Ayrshire, North and South Lanarkshire and Clackmannanshire and Stirling – would remain in level 2, rather than the further easing to level 1 that had been anticipated.
Sturgeon said that Tuesday’s decisions did not take areas “backwards”, but argued that “a slight slowing down of the easing of restrictions, to allow time for more people to be fully vaccinated, will help protect our progress overall”.
Her announcement came after the Office for National Statistics said its random sampling around the UK had shown a sharp rise in Covid cases in Scotland.
Calling for more targeted, local restrictions, the Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, described the statement as a “disappointing setback” that left half of Scotland “stuck in limbo”.
It means that people in Glasgow – as has been the case in most of the rest of Scotland since the middle of May – will be able to meet in homes in groups of up to six, from a maximum of three households. It also means that indoor licensed hospitality can reopen, and that people can travel again between Glasgow and other parts of the country.
“As someone who lives in Glasgow, I know [the change] will make a huge difference to quality of life,” Sturgeon told the Holyrood chamber.
Glasgow is planning to host a 3,000-person-capacity Euro 2020 fan zone from 11 June. Sturgeon told MSPs that the situation with the virus would be “continually reviewed in the run-up to the tournament”, adding: “We want fans to be able to safely enjoy the Euros … but public safety continues to be our overriding priority.”
The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, called on the government to learn from the Glasgow experience: “It is paramount that we design proper protocols for what happens in current and future hotspot areas. Those protocols must include walk-in vaccination centres for everyone aged over 18, the mass rollout of PCR tests, increased support for local businesses and greater access to isolation support grants.”
Fifteen other council areas will move to level 1 from Saturday – Highland, Argyll & Bute, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire, Moray, Angus, Perth & Kinross, Falkirk, Fife, Inverclyde, East and West Lothian, West Dunbartonshire, Dumfries & Galloway and the Borders – meaning that limits on meetings in indoor public places increase to eight people from three households; and outdoors to 12 people from 12 households; 100 people as opposed to 50 can attend weddings and funerals; and soft play centres and funfairs can reopen.
