At today’s media briefing on Covid-19 the First Minister has reintroduced lockdown restrictions in Grampian.
Bars and cafés in Aberdeen will close again in the wake of 54 new cases in the north east of Scotland. There are 64 new cases in Scotland in the last 24 hours and 36 of those in the Grampian health board area.
The First Minister said that she is reimposing these restrictions about sticking to a five mile travel area and not entering other people’s houses in a ‘rapidly accelerating’ situation.
“In Aberdeen they are not yet able to be certain about all of the routes of transmission. There is an uncertainty about the chains of transmission which led me to act quickly to put additional measures in place while Test and Protect gets on with its job.”
She said it appears to have been the night-time economy where the transmissions have begun.
Dr Gregor Smith Interim Chief Medical Officer said he was wary of waiting any longer to take these steps.
Watch the full media briefing here:
📺 Watch live: First Minister @NicolaSturgeon holds a press conference on #coronavirus (#COVIDー19).
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) August 5, 2020
Joining the First Minister today is Scotland’s Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith. https://t.co/eWcfhI0CKa
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “The virus cluster in Aberdeen is a serious cause for concern and the Scottish Government and Aberdeen City Council have made the correct decision to protect the wellbeing of the community by re-imposing certain restrictions.
“The containment of the virus is of the highest importance and Scottish Labour will continue to support the efforts of the government to do so while holding it to account for its failings.
“The First Minister must explain why John Swinney has been tasked with leading the response to this outbreak while his education brief is in utter disarray. There are numerous other ministers capable of leading this response and the choice of Mr Swinney cannot be used to escape scrutiny of the exam results fiasco. He had one job to do and he has spectacularly failed at that, so I wouldn’t put him in charge of anything else.
“The re-imposition of restrictions will inevitably have a negative impact on the economy of Aberdeen and the North East. It is vital that the Scottish Government is willing to do all it can to protect not only the physical, but also the economic wellbeing of the area.”
The Scottish Government will introduce regulations to back these closures. A review will be made next Wednesday.
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