Nicola Sturgeon yesterday afternoon confirmed the majority of mainland Scotland will be under Level 2 lockdown restrictions as of this coming Monday, May 17.
The move means significant changes for the hospitality industry, international travel and limits on meeting indoors and outdoors in the coming weeks.
Significantly, physical distancing restrictions in private settings such as homes and gardens will be scrapped, meaning Scots will be able to hug their loved ones once more from Monday.
Elsewhere, there's set to be a return to business for cinemas, theatres and concert halls.
Scottish islands will be put into Level 1 lockdown on Monday, while Moray looks set to remain in Level 3 amid a recent spike in covid-19 cases.
But the remainder of the country, including Glasgow, will begin Level 2 lockdown life from Monday, edging us a little closer to 'normality'.
However, Nicola Sturgeon also alluded to an indicative timeline setting out the path for future lockdown easing during her speech in Edinburgh yesterday afternoon.
The First Minister urged caution as she confirmed the latest relaxation of lockdown rules, yet advised it is the hope the majority of mainland Scotland will move to Level 1 lockdown on Monday, June 7 and Level 0 on Monday, June 28.
As part of her announcement, she advised: "Next week’s changes are really important, the most important yet.
"I suspect many of you will already be looking forward to meeting up with a friend at home; to having a drink indoors in a pub or restaurant; and to hugging a member of your close family. Enjoy those moments when they come. They have been greatly missed and hard-earned by all of us.
"And I hope and expect that they will be followed – fairly soon - by further steps in the right direction.
"I hope Moray will be in Level 2 soon. And for the rest of the mainland, I have already said that if circumstances allow, we will move to Level 1 on Monday 7 June, and then to Level 0 on Monday, 28 June.
"Level 0, of course, still involves restrictions and I hope and expect that we can move on to something much more like normality, over the course of the summer, and into the autumn.
"For example, if we can, we will continue to relax physical distancing rules. And when it is safe to do so – for example once all of the adult population is fully vaccinated – we hope to be able to move to the removal of these kind of rules altogether but I can’t put a date on that quite yet.
"But in order to ensure that we do continue to make progress, we must continue to exercise good sense and caution. The more we can suppress the virus, the more quickly we can open things up."
For Nicola Sturgeon's lockdown easing speech in full, you can read our story here.
