Scotland will reopen hairdressers, garden centres and homeware stores on April 5 before the country moves out of the coronavirus lockdown three weeks later, with pubs, gyms and non-essential shops allowed to throw open their doors, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
The First Minister said new rules coming into April 2 would change the “stay at home” guidance to “stay local”, while click-and-collect retail services and some other shops would be able to reopen three days later.
The country will then move out of lockdown and into a “modified Level 3” on April 26, when travel restrictions across the country will be dropped and retail and hospitality will be able to open. Further easing of outdoor socialising restrictions will also happen on that date.
It came as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urged Britons to continue to take up the offer of the AstraZeneca/Ofoxrd vaccine and said it was “crystal clear” that the jab was safe. Several European countries have paused injections of the vaccine amid concerns about blood clots in people who have had the shot.
