Lanarkshire and East Kilbride has been plunged into a second lockdown.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned this week that cases remained “stubbornly high” and confirmed the region would face tier 4 restrictions during a briefing at the Scottish Parliament this afternoon.
The new restrictions will come into place from Friday and will be in place for three weeks, lifting on December 11.
The First Minister said she hoped this would allow for some freedom of movement between families and communities during the festive season.
Leaked documents warned that South and North Lanarkshire would be among a number of Scottish local authorities – and three million Scots – under the highest level of restrictions.
The details of that were confirmed by Ms Sturgeon at Holyrood, with South and North Lanarkshire joining nine other regions across Scotland.
Those include East Renfrewshire, the City of Glasgow, Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, Stirling and West Lothian.
East Kilbride and the West of Scotland as a whole has been braced for tighter lockdown for the rest of November in a bid to ease restrictions for people at Christmas.
Residents will face further restrictions on travel, closure of non essential shops, hairdressers, pubs and gyms.
But unlike the first lockdown in March schools, colleges and universities will remain open – despite threats of strike action from teachers.
The First Minister also said tough new rules for tiers 3 and 4 will see travel restrictions become legally enforceable, in an attempt to further suppress the virus.
Ms Sturgeon insisted the increase in cases has slowed down considerably and existing restrictions have helped to flatten the infection curve.
But she added: “So we have made progress, but the overall level of infection remains higher than we need it to be."
And she said the move in to tier 4 was to to ensure that the NHS can cope with the range of pressures it will face over the winter; to ensure that hospital and ICU services are there for everyone who needs them; to allow the easing of restrictions in all parts of Scotland for Christmas and bring infection rates to a lower baseline now.
