Nicola Sturgeon will today confirm the coronavirus tiers that will apply to Scotland's 32 local authorities.
The Scottish Cabinet will sign off a plan which will be announced by the First Minister at Holyrood.
Scotland's five tier system, which ranges from zero to four, has been in place since early November.
Eleven local authorities, covering west and central Scotland, are in level four and Sturgeon confirmed yesterday this would end on Friday.
She said: “We have always said, and said when we applied level four to these areas, that those authorities would move out of that level on Friday. And I can confirm that that remains the case. That will be the case.”
On the other areas, she declined to say whether they would go up or down: “We are also considering what changes, if any, should be made to the levels applying in other areas. As ever, our decisions will be based on the trajectory of the virus in each local authority each, as well as the need to protect capacity in the NHS.”
She added: “But there are other areas that we will be looking at to see whether they can come down a level, and of course we will have to look at whether there are any areas that the data suggests should be moved up a level.”
Level four includes the closure of bars, pubs and restaurants, as well as the closure of non-essential retail.
