Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scots to work from home until the middle of JANUARY as concerns grow about the surge of the Omicron Covid variant.
Speaking to the Scottish Parliament today, Sturgeon warned there had been a ten fold increase in Omicron since last week.
And while she stopped short of announcing any new legal protections, she said her government were prepared to review measures on a daily basis.
And the First Minister called on businesses to ensure employees work from home in the lead up to Christmas and beyond.
She said: “We already advise people to work from home wherever practical. Today, I am asking employers to ensure that this is happening.
“To be blunt, if you had staff working from home at this start of the pandemic, please now enable them to do so again.
“We are asking you to do this from now until the middle of January when we will review this advice again.”
Hinting that she was prepared to take decisions that may prove unpopular, Sturgeon added: "For the Scottish Government, our first principle will be to seek to do what is necessary to keep the country as safe as possible, even if that is at the expense of being popular.
“And, second, we will strive to get the right balance between acting proportionately and acting preventatively.
“We know from experience that with an infectious virus acting quickly can be vital – if we wait too long for data to confirm we have a problem, it might already be too late to prevent the problem.
“In fact, acting preventatively is often the best way of ensuring that action can remain limited and proportionate.”
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