Scots could soon be able to travel abroad without the need for quarantine as Nicola Sturgeon prepares to ease lockdown restrictions.
The First Minister is due to host a covid briefing on Tuesday - her first since last week's Holyrood election - in which she will detail a significant relaxation of rules as the number of covid cases across the country continues to tumble.
Non-essential overseas travel has been banned since last year and the SNP leader has previously expressed doubt over whether the rules could be eased this month.
But it's understood the Scottish Government is now planning to introduce a traffic lights system - similar to that announced in England - which will come into effect as of May 24.
Countries will be classified as green, amber and red and a review will take place every four weeks.
The move to the next stage of the road map out of lockdown comes came as the Covid-19 alert level in the UK was downgraded after a “consistent” fall in cases, hospital admissions and deaths.
Scotland England and Northern Ireland recored zero coronavirus deaths on Monday as the UK’s coronavirus alert level was lowered from four to three on the advice of experts.
Alert level three means that although the virus is still in general circulation, transmission is no longer high or rising exponentially.
The four chief medical officers of the UK said the threat level should be reduced thanks to the success of the vaccination programme and social distancing restrictions.
At a Downing Street press conference after a Cabinet meeting to sign off the changes Johnson said England remains “on track” to end all legal restrictions on June 21 and said an update later this month would set out what role, “if any”, could be played by coronavirus health certificates and social distancing.
He told the press conference: “This unlocking amounts to a very considerable step on the road map back to normality and I am confident we will be able to go further.
“Subject to the impact of step three on the data, we remain on track to move to step four on June 21."
Johnson added: “And to give business more time to prepare we will be saying more later this month about exactly what the world will look like and what role there could be – if any – for certification and social distancing.”
The biggest easing of lockdown measures so far is designed to encourage people to take more personal responsibility for managing the risks posed by the virus including, the Prime Minister said, deciding who to hug.
