– Roles being advertised focus on picking and packing Morrisons on Amazon orders –
Morrisons is creating over 1,000 permanent jobs to fulfil orders for its services on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon Prime Now.
Morrisons is recruiting the colleagues to help pick and pack customer orders from over 50 stores, covering most major cities and many towns.
Customers are looking for different ways to access grocery home deliveries and Morrisons on Amazon (an Amazon.co.uk service) and the Morrisons Store on Amazon Prime Now (accessible via the Prime Now site and app) provide Prime members with a way of getting free-of-charge same-day grocery delivery.
Orders are placed on Amazon, before being picked in store by Morrisons employees and packed in a dedicated area. From there, the shopping is collected by Amazon Flex Delivery Partners and delivered to the customer within a two-hour delivery window on the same day.
The ‘Customer Assistant – Pick and Pack’ roles are available in over 50 stores across the country. Successful candidates will work as part of a Delivery team in stores, ensuring that orders are picked and packed correctly and customer service standards are maintained.
Hannah Horsfall, Head of Amazon at Morrisons,said: “At Morrisons, we’re doing everything we can to ensure everyone can order our great value food and have it delivered to their doorstep.
“We’re looking for team players, with good customer service skills that can play their full part in helping to feed the nation.”
All jobs are advertised on the Morrisons Jobs website: https://www.morrisons.jobs/ – search for pick and pack.
New legislation to improve the benefits system to help those who need it most has been unanimously passed by the Scottish Parliament.
The Social Security Administration and Tribunal Membership (Scotland) Bill supports the delivery of the new Scottish Child Payment, to provide low-income families with an additional £10 per week, initially for each child aged under six.
The Payment, together with Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, will provide over £5,200 of financial support for families by the time their first child turns six. For second and subsequent children this will provide over £4,900.
Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “When I brought this Bill forward, the driving force was to have the Scottish Child Payment in place as soon as possible to make an impact on child poverty.
“I am pleased and proud that, in the teeth of a global pandemic, the Scottish Child Payment will open for applications in November with first payments to start from February 2021. Vitally the bill passed today ensures that the Payment will be up-rated every year in line with inflation, from April 2022 onwards.
“This Bill also ensures that there is a duty to inform people of their potential eligibility for benefits such as our Child Payment. Promoting the take-up of Scotland’s social security benefits is a major part of our strategy to make sure people access the financial assistance they are entitled to.”
The Social Security Administration and Tribunal Membership (Scotland) Bill makes a number of improvements to the social security system, and expands the range of judges allowed to sit on Scottish Tribunals.
It allows Ministers to appoint a person to receive benefit payments on someone else’s behalf if the claimant is a child or – in the case of an adult – if the claimant agrees to the appointment.
The Bill also allows appropriately qualified medical professionals other than just doctors to confirm that a person is terminally ill for the purpose of ‘fast tracking’ their benefit claim. The first benefit to which this will apply is the Child Disability Payment.
The Bill applies the rules for dealing with fraud consistently across different kinds of social security.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission estimates that the Scottish Child Payment could support up to 194,000 children this year. This number has increased by 14 per cent since the Scottish Government released forecasts in June 2019, largely due to the increased Universal Credit caseload as a result of COVID-19.
Initially introduced for children under six, the Payment will be rolled out to under 16 year olds, eventually helping up to 499,000 eligible children.
An estimated 35,070 Scottish SME*s (small and medium-sized enterprises) say it is likely their business will close permanently in the next 12 months as a result of the coronavirus crisis, with this figure rising to 54,776 in the event that a second national lockdown is introduced, according to a recent survey by Virgin Money*.
The research is reported in the latest Virgin Money Business Pulse, which provides a comprehensive insight into the performance of the UK’s SMEs and the environment in which they operate.
Across the UK as a whole, the survey, which was conducted in early September, revealed that almost one million SMEs fear they could close if there was a second lockdown. Two-thirds (66%) of SMEs said their profits were lower in April because of COVID-19 disruptions, including 21% whose profits took a hit of more than 50%.
Despite lockdown restrictions easing over the summer months, 64% of profits SMEs’ profits over the past 30 days decreased due to coronavirus-related disruption, compared to expected profits for this period prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. 55% of these businesses believe it will take more than six months for profits to recover to pre-lockdown levels.
Underlining the continuing precarious situation for SMEs, 17% of businesses say it is very likely or somewhat likely they will be forced to close permanently in the next 12 months. This number rises to almost a quarter (24%) when considered in the context of a potential second national lockdown, similar to that seen in March and April.
A key turning point for SMEs will be the closure of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme at the end of October. 42% of SMEs (excluding sole traders) expect their workforce to be smaller in December than it is in September. The new Job Support Scheme coming into force on 1 November is less generous than the furlough scheme, and so represents a significant withdrawal of fiscal stimulus.
However, the survey also uncovers some positives, with 15% of SMEs stating their profits were unaffected during lockdown and 10% noting their profits were higher, as demand for specific products, such as food and PPE, increased.
In addition, the lockdown has prompted almost a quarter (23%) of SMEs to update their strategy, 21% to reshape their vision, and 12% have improved existing products and services.
The Virgin Money Business Pulse covers the first half of 2020, which captures the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
The scale of the challenges experienced by SMEs is reflected in the Virgin Money Business Pulse, which fell to its lowest ever level of 32.9 in the second quarter of 2020.
This was driven by record-low scores in the revenue, GDP and capacity indicators, although gains were made in the business costs and lending indicators.
Rock bottom commodity prices and falling wages have provided some relief to SMEs in the form of declining business costs. Similarly, government-backed loans as part of the fiscal response to the pandemic, led to a record jump in SMEs’ borrowing, which has improved the lending indicator.
Elsewhere in the Virgin Money Business Pulse, the new Regional Rebalancing Tracker, which records regional economic inequalities in the UK, reveals the economic divide between London and the South East and the rest of the UK has continued to widen in the past six years.
Scores are calculated based on a region’s convergence to the level of economic prosperity and opportunity in London and the South East. The tracker reached a record low of 38.6 points in Q2 2020, with the lowest levels of convergence in the North East of England and the East Midlands.
Scotland’s individual Regional Rebalancing score was 37.6 in Q2 2020, with a weak rate of business creation weighing on the overall score. Productivity in Scotland is, however, the highest in the UK outside of London and the South East.
It is estimated that in 2020, workers in London and the South East generated on average £37.69 per hour worked. In Scotland, the corresponding figure is £30.13. This means that for every pound of output generated by workers in London and the South East, workers in Scotland generate an estimated 80 pence in the same amount of time.
Gavin Opperman, group business director at Virgin Money, said: “The results make for sober reading, but they are unsurprising given the extraordinary disruption of the last six months.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the deepest recession on record and recovery is slow, despite the national GDP figures regaining ground. The UK’s SMEs have experienced unprecedented strain, with sales and profits affected by workplace closures, supply chain disruption, diminished productivity and declining household incomes.
“Despite the pickup in economic activity in the summer months, businesses are by no means out of the woods. As we head into the autumn and winter months with newly introduced restrictions, the next six months will be critical for many businesses.
“SMEs have shown tremendous resilience and innovation this year, with some excellent examples of creativity to pivot business models and maintain operations. But there is no doubt there are tough times ahead.
“On a brighter note, the pandemic may offer SMEs the chance to continue longer-term with the new and more flexible work patterns the pandemic necessitated, helping to rebalance the spread of wealth and opportunity across the country.
“We will continue to focus on how we can best support the businesses we work with. The future is always hard to predict, perhaps more so now than ever, but we will aim to be the best partner we can be as the UK navigates through the economic recovery from the pandemic”.
*Calculated by The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), with research conducted by Censuswide from 04/09/20 to 07/09/20, with 501 SME decision makers
Openness and transparency are the key foundations of any democracy. But today we find too much of our politics is shrouded in secrecy. Too often voters remain unsure about who is behind the messages they read, who is behind the information that shapes their political views, and ultimately their votes. In no area is this truer than online campaigning (writes JESSICA BLAIR).
Nine months on from the general election, we still have little idea how much money was spent in the campaign. But even when the data is published by the Electoral Commission, huge gaps will remain in our understanding of how voters were targeted – and by whom.
Democracy is about empowering citizens so that they can actively take part in our political processes and make an informed decision at the ballot box. Transparency, fairness and accountability in political campaigning are key to ensuring this is possible. But while technology offers huge opportunities for political engagement, the current system – if it can be called that – is an unregulated Wild West.
Indeed, the Electoral Commission’s own post-election research found that ‘[m]isleading content and presentation techniques are undermining voters’ trust in election campaigns’ and that the ‘significant public concerns about the transparency of digital election campaigns risk overshadowing their benefits’.
Democracy in the Dark, a new report commissioned by the Electoral Reform Society and written by Dr Katharine Dommett and Dr Sam Power, sheds light on campaigning in the 2019 general election.
For the first time, the authors reveal how much was spent on social media platforms by campaigners and parties during the election, and track the rise of non-party ‘outriders’, with all the associated secrecy.
However, it’s not enough to just point out the risks. Dommett and Power also summarise the many sensible, proportionate and easily implementable recommendations, around which there is broad and cross-party consensus, as to how we can restore trust in our democratic processes.
These reforms would shine a light on the murky world of unregulated online campaigning, focusing on five key areas: 1. Money; 2. Non-party campaigns; 3. Targeting; 4. Data; 5. Misinformation.
Many of the recommendations in this report echo existing calls to modernise electoral law to help rebuild trust in our democratic system. Recommendations include closing funding loopholes, creating national standards for social media ad transparency and ensuring voters can easily see who is targeting them and why.
Since we published our report Reining in the Political Wild West in 2019, countless calls have been made across the political spectrum in support of reform and there continues to be strong and long-standing cross-party support to tame the unregulated Wild West of online political campaigning.
Yet despite repeated calls for reform, little action has been taken. Strikingly, far from becoming more transparent, the authors find that in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, parties and campaigners have become even more cautious about disclosing information about their campaign activities online.
In terms of progress, the most significant step has been the launch of a consultation on extending the use of imprints to include online election material – a necessary step, but which on its own is woefully insufficient.
Such limited efforts have further been undermined by alleged threats to abolish the Electoral Commission if it cannot be ‘radically overhauled’. Rather than enhancing the Commission’s powers and resources so that it can tackle the challenges of the modern age, the body tasked with protecting our democracy is under unprecedented attack.
With elections due to take place across the UK in May 2021, we cannot let the urgent task of ensuring our electoral integrity be kicked into the long grass once more.
The Scottish Government are holding a workshop with urban residents tomorrow (Thursday 1 October) from 4.30pm – 6.00pm, on the subject of short-term lets.
The Scottish Government are hosting the event using Webex, and still have a small number of spaces available.
They appreciate this is short notice, but if anybody in the community council network wishes to attend, they’d be grateful if you could respond to: shorttermlets@gov.scot and joining details will be sent to them.
For those unable to join, they are inviting written submissions to the consultation until 16 October.
Simon Holledge
Secretary, Edinburgh Assocation of Community Councils
Additional funding to help pandemic response and winter preparation
Scotland’s health and social care sector will receive £1.1 billion in additional funding to support its work through coronavirus (COVID-19) pressures, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has announced.
The funding will be allocated to NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships across Scotland to help them meet COVID-19 related costs such as additional staffing or sickness expenditure, enhanced infection prevention and control measures, and the purchase of PPE.
Ms Freeman said: “The health and social care sector has a critical frontline role in responding to the single greatest public health crisis of our lifetimes, and I want to pay tribute to all staff involved for their heroic efforts to overcome the many challenges presented by this pandemic.
“As we continue to safely remobilise our health and social care sector, the Scottish Government is taking action to support services’ capacity to deal with the ongoing presence of COVID 19, and continue preparations for the wider pressures of the winter season.
“This funding ensures the sector will continue to receive the support required to deal with the additional challenges of the pandemic, whilst still delivering the vital health, social care and hospital-based services the public rely on every day.”
Health and social care funding rose to more than £15 billion for the first time under the 2020-21 Budget, with more than £100 million delivered in excess of Barnett consequentials to support frontline services as part of the overall uplift.
To stop the virus spreading and save lives we need to act now. Stick with it Scotland, for yourselves and each other. pic.twitter.com/2RsHcgOpPb
Today, the Edinburgh Poverty Commission launches it’s final report, A Just Capital: Actions to End Poverty in Edinburgh.
In this blog, EPC Chair Dr Jim McCormick (below) sets out the Commission’s journey, what we have learned along the way, and what we are calling for next:
Our Call to Action in Edinburgh comes after almost two years of conversations across the city: with people experiencing poverty, the community anchors that support them, keyworkers, employers, councillors, public service officials, housing providers and taxi drivers.
This rich process has uncovered new insights on how poverty is experienced in Scotland’s capital city – some arising directly from the COVID-19 pandemic – but more stemming from long-established struggles. We set out much of what we had learned about the immediate impact of Covid in our interim report in May.
Since then, we have maintained a clear focus on addressing the root causes of poverty as well as mitigating the consequences. We have discovered common ground among people with different experiences and in different sectors: that poverty in Edinburgh is real, damaging and costly – but also that, despite the powerful currents that threaten to drive us further off course, there is enough determination in the city to embrace the twin challenges of solving poverty and reducing carbon emissions over the next decade.
We have identified six broad areas for action and one cultural challenge that should serve as a lens through which each action should be approached.
Our first proposition is that Edinburgh will only succeed in creating a prosperous city without poverty if it creates the conditions for good jobs, genuinely affordable housing, income security and meaningful opportunities that drive justice and boost prospects – above all, in the city’s schools.
In addition, a much sharper focus on connections across the city is needed – via digital participation, cheaper transport and creating neighbourhoods that work. These actions combined will flow through to reduced harm to people’s physical and mental health. Emergency food support should not become locked in as a fourth emergency service but serve as a gateway to other support that will ease isolation and build human connection and kindness where it has been lacking.
The common challenge running through all of our work is a cultural one. We call on the City Council and its partners in all sectors to shift towards a relationship-based way of working which gets alongside people and communities in a holistic way.
The experience of poverty is too often one of stigma, being assessed, referred and passed from pillar to post – a separate service and multiple workers for each need. This radical move would see public servants authorised to put poverty prevention at the heart of their day-to-day work.
It will mean new relationships with citizens, employees and third sector partners. It will take visible leadership and longer-term financial commitment. There are green shoots in Edinburgh and examples from beyond Scotland demonstrating how better outcomes for families can be achieved and fewer resources locked into multiple complex systems.
We call this ‘the right support in the places we live and work’ to signal the importance of local access to multiple forms of support under one roof and within walking or pram-pushing distance – for example money advice and family support offered in nurseries, schools, GP surgeries and libraries.
None of these challenges are new. The City Council and its partners can point to significant investment in recent years to turn the tide on poverty. But we are not persuaded that actions have been consistent, at scale, sustained over time or have poverty reduction as part of their purpose.
While Edinburgh has many of the powers to go further, we are not persuaded that it can deliver on the required social housing expansion without a new funding deal with the Scottish Government.
This is urgently needed to boost investment and to help unlock the supply of land at a reasonable price. Almost one in three families in Edinburgh in poverty are pulled below the water line solely due to their housing costs.
That compares with one in eight households in poverty across Scotland. Solving the city’s housing crisis will go a long way to delivering on affordable housing ambitions for the country as a whole.
At the same time, the UK Government has a critical role in creating an income lifeline for families in and out of work, by maintaining the currently temporary increase in Universal Credit and Local Housing Allowance – both of which have become more significant as a result of damage to Edinburgh’s job market since March.
This Call to Action is not a list of recommendations or a menu of options. Reflecting our lives, each area is connected to the others. A plan for housing makes little sense in isolation from a plan for schools. Developing skills for employment will fall short if basic needs for secure, decent housing and food are neglected.
Nor is the ten-year horizon a get-out clause. We have worked on this basis because Scotland has committed to a significant cut in child poverty by 2030 and because many of the city’s existing plans run to the same schedule. We call on the City Council and the wider Edinburgh Partnership to set out its initial response by Christmas, as part of a first year of planning and early implementation.
And we are leaving a legacy through a new independent network, End Poverty Edinburgh. Led by Commission member Zoe Ferguson and our partners at Poverty Alliance, this brings together a core group of residents with first-hand experience of living on a low income and allies who want to be part of shaping the solutions.
Inspired by a similar approach in Edmonton (Alberta), they will stress test this report, challenge and add their own ideas, work with city partners to achieve progress but also hold the city to account on its response.
I want to thank everyone who contributed to our work in the hard graft of sharing painful stories, completing surveys and through organised and chance conversations.
Each member of the Commission gave their time, energy and ideas generously and for longer than originally asked. The quotes in this report reflect only a little of their brilliant contributions. Our work – and this report – was only possible due to the skill, care and patience brought by our secretariat team of Chris Adams, Nicola Elliott, Ciaran McDonald, and Gareth Dixon.
We have listened, been shocked and inspired – I hope we have done justice to what we have learned. Our Call to Action sets out something beyond hope: it is an expectation of what the city can and must now achieve.
Dr Jim McCormick, Chair of Edinburgh Poverty Commission
Read the final report here and the supplementary data and evidence paper here.
Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House, yesterday – Tuesday 29 September: the day coronavirus deaths topped one million worldwide.
Hello, and thanks for joining us. I will start with the daily update of COVID statistics. The total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 806. I’m going to make some important contextual points on today’s figure shortly but I will report the rest of the statistics first.
That 806 represents 11.5% of people newly tested, and takes the total number of cases to 28,604.
I can confirm that 302 of today’s reported cases are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 180 in Lothian, 91 in Lanarkshire and 54 in Grampian. The remaining 179 cases are spread across 9 other health board areas.
I can also confirm that 123 people are in hospital – that is an increase of 1 from yesterday. 14 people are in intensive care, which is 2 fewer than yesterday.
No additional deaths have been confirmed of patients who had tested positive within the preceding 28 days.
That means that the total number of deaths, under the daily measurement, remains at 2,512.
That total of course reminds us of the impact this virus has had, and continues to have. I want once again to pass on my condolences to everybody who is grieving a loved one.
Let me now turn to some points of context about today’s figures.
First, as I have explained before our daily case numbers reflects test results reported in previous 24 hours. Each day’s figure therefore reflects test samples actually carried out over the previous couple of days.
You will recall me saying that yesterday’s figure of reported cases seemed lower than expected. So today’s total of 806 includes a high number of results from samples actually taken on Friday and Saturday that we would have expected to see reported yesterday.
So that perhaps partly explains the particularly high number of cases we’re seeing today. We continue to work with the UK government to ensure that turnaround times for test results, which after a bit of a problem a couple of weeks ago have improved, continue to be as speedy as they need to be.
The second point is that, while we are certainly seeing rising transmission – and I am not underplaying that – we are doing much more testing now than in the spring, so comparisons of daily case numbers now versus then are not really particularly valid.
And of course Test and Protect is able to follow up every person who tests positive to ensure their contacts are traced and told to self-isolate.
So when we know transmission is rising as it is right now, it is actually important to know that significant numbers are being reported every day – that means we know about these positive cases and their contacts are being traced by Test and Protect and all of the work that Test and Protect has to do to break chains of transmission is being done.
The final point to draw attention to about today’s numbers is the age range of the cases. The majority are in the under 40 age groups – with the bulk of those in the under 25 age group – and that is of course affected by university clusters we’ve been seeing in recent days.
But the point I want to make today which is one you’ve heard me make before is that the fact that many cases are now in the younger age groups and we know that younger people are less likely to die from COVID than older, more vulnerable people, that mustn’t give rise to complacency.
Firstly, because young people can become very unwell from this virus and, while their risk of dying is lower, they’re not non-existent and we hear almost every day of what is described as ‘long COVID’ – of younger otherwise healthy people having quite long lasting health impacts from having had the virus.
But the other point about this is that, while we’re seeing a significant number of cases in the younger age group which is a phenomenon we’ve seen across Europe in the latest surge of COVID, it is the case that transmission amongst older age groups is also rising.
Around a third of today’s cases are actually in the over 40 age group and there are a number in the over 60 age group so transmission is rising across the spectrum of age ranges and I’ll say more shortly therefore about what we must all do to guard against transmission.
However, I will briefly address a couple of other issues first.
The Scottish Government Chief Economist has published his regular State of the Economy report today.
The report highlights that – year on year – economic output is likely to decline by 10% over the course of 2020. In many ways that is unsurprising, given the disruption caused to so many businesses. Nevertheless, that would still be the biggest reduction in output in modern times.
That is why the Scottish Government welcomed some parts of the UK Government’s announcement last week about continued support for employment and businesses. It is vital that some support for employers continues, after the furlough scheme ends at the end of October.
But we believe much more is still required and we want to work with the UK government constructively to that end. We can’t get away from the fact that the pandemic will continue to have a significant and, to a large extent, an unavoidable impact on our economy and support provided must reflect that.
The second issue I want to cover relates to funding for health boards and our health and social care integration authorities.
The Health Secretary confirmed earlier today that we are making an additional £1.1 billion available for these bodies.
This will help them to meet additional costs associated with COVID – such as buying personal protective equipment (PPE), safeguarding against infection; and paying for additional staff, and providing cover for staff who are unwell or self-isolating.
The funding will play an important part in ensuring that our health and care services can continue to operate well in the weeks and months to come.
It should help them to prepare for the pressures of the winter, to care safely for patients who have COVID, as well as resume services that were paused during the early months of the pandemic for non-COVID treatments and procedures.
Now let me return to the central issue of the day, which is the current COVID position. As is said earlier, COVID is on the rise again across our population and across Scotland – just as it is across the UK, Europe and the world.
I want to return today to the key actions that we should all take to try and reduce transmission and in particular, the actions we all need to take if we get a positive test result.
This is absolutely vital in helping control the spread of the virus. And it is crucial for all of us, wherever we live – there has been lots of focus on students in halls of residence recently – but self-isolation is essential for all of us if we test positive no matter where we live.
Essentially, if you have any one of the three recognised symptoms of COVID, you should start to self-isolate immediately, and book a test.
You can do that through the NHS Inform website. And I want to be very clear, while we’re not complacent and monitor this carefully, there is good availability of and access to testing across Scotland so make sure you don’t delay booking a test if you have symptoms.
The symptoms are a new cough, a high temperature, or a loss of – or change in – your sense of taste or smell.
From the time you realise you have one of these symptoms, you should not leave your house, except if you need to do that to get tested. You should not use public transport to go to a testing centre – if you can avoid that, you should instead drive or get someone to drive you, request a home test, or use a walk-in centre if there is one nearby or a mobile testing unit.
When you get your test result, if you test negative, and don’t have COVID, you can stop self-isolating at that point.
However if you have COVID, you need to self-isolate for a further 10 days, starting from the day on which you took the test.
Other people in your household should self-isolate for 14 days. They need to self-isolate for longer because if they get COVID from you, their infectious period will probably start a few days after yours did.
In addition, if you test positive someone from Test and Protect will speak to you to identify other possible contacts of yours.
And of course if you have downloaded the Protect Scotland app, you should also enter the code you have been given with your test result.
Once that code is entered onto the app, contacts identified by the app will automatically be notified. This is really important. Since we launched the app a couple of weeks ago, hundreds of people – who might not otherwise have been identified – have received notifications in this way and been given advice to self-isolate.
If you find out that you are a contact of someone with COVID – either through a Test and Protect team, or from the app – you need to self-isolate for 14 days. You will be told when that 14 day period starts from.
And the key thing to stress here is that self-isolation really does mean self-isolation. It means not leaving your house at all.
Because we know that’s really tough, we are working to put as much support in place as possible. For example, we are working with local authorities to ensure that when someone is asked by Test and Protect to self-isolate, they are contacted and offered essential practical support – for example help with delivery of food and other essentials. You can also dial the national assistance hotline if you need to self-isolate and need some help on 0800 111 4000. That’s 0800 111 4000.
As I said last week, we are also introducing financial support of £500 for those on low incomes as a way of supporting people to do the right thing. More details of that will be available later this week.
But although self-isolation is tough, it is also essential.
So please do self-isolate when you need to. It is one of the key ways in which we can help ensure that the virus does not spread to new households. And it is one of the ways in which all of us, at various times, may well be required to play our part in tackling the spread of the virus.
Now I’ve spent some time on self-isolation because it is so important and we want to make sure people understand why it’s so important and also what needs to be done when you’re asked to self-isolate and the support that is available. But there are of course other steps we must all take to try to reduce transmission.
So let me end with a quick recap of what those other steps are:
With some limited exceptions, none of us should be visiting each other’s homes at the moment.
When we do meet other households – outdoors, or in indoor public places – we must not meet in groups of more than six people from a maximum of two households.
We should all try to limit our visits to, and social interactions in, places like pubs and restaurants.
We should work from home if we can.
We should all download the Protect Scotland app, if we can.
And finally, all of us in all our interactions, should remember FACTS:
face coverings
avoid crowded places
clean hands and hard surfaces
maintain a two metre distance from people from other households
and – as I have already talked about today – immediately self-isolate, and book a test, if you have any of the recognised symptoms
These rules are not easy to comply with and they are a huge inconvenience to all of us in our daily lives. But they are essential right now to ensure that all of us are playing our part in trying to stem the increase in COVID and bring the virus back under control.
So again, my thanks to everybody for all of the many sacrifices that I know are being made the length and breadth of the country.
