Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed pubs, restaurants and cafes will reopen from Monday.
Hospitality venues will be allowed to open until 8pm indoors, but no alcohol will be served.
Alcohol will be permitted in outdoor settings such as beer gardens, with opening hours determined by local licensing laws.
The First Minister had previously flagged the April 26th date when she published the Government’s routemap for taking Scotland out of lockdown.
At her briefing today, she confirmed changes that will see Scots back in pubs and restaurants in less than a week’s time.
For indoor venues, a maximum of six people from up to two households will be able to socialise.
Up to six people from up to six households will be able to socialise in pubs, cafes and restaurants outdoors.
Sturgeon said there had been a "sustained improvement" in the fight against coronavirus and confirmed that from Monday all parts of the country in Level 4 – which includes all of the Scottish mainland – would drop down to Level 3 restrictions.
She said it was expected all of Scotland would move to Level 2 on Monday May 17 – allowing people to meet in “small numbers” in homes for the first time in many months.
She added that “if circumstances permit” the intention is for Scotland to move to Level 1 restrictions from Monday June 7, before moving to Level 0 in “late June”.
The First Minister said that by the “deeper part of the summer” she hoped “something much more like normality” would be possible.
“We are hopeful, very hopeful, of seeing sustained progress,” she stated.
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