First Minister explains new regulations

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House, yesterday (Friday 8 October):

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. I will start with the usual report on the daily COVID statistics.

The total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 1,246.

That is 16.2% of people newly tested, and takes the total number of cases to 37,033.

440 of the cases were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 306 in Lanarkshire, and 192 in Lothian. 

The remaining cases were spread across 9 other health board areas.

I can also confirm that 397 people are currently in hospital – that is an increase of 20  since yesterday.

33 people are now in intensive care, that is  2 more than yesterday.

And I regret to say that 6 additional deaths have been registered of people who first tested positive during the previous 28 days. The total number of deaths, under the measure used in these daily figures, is therefore now 2,544.

Today’s total – and indeed all of the deaths that have been recorded in recent days – reminds us, and should remind us, again that Covid is a virus that is deadly for some people, as well as being really dangerous for others.

This is not a virus that we can be complacent about or just allow to spread unchecked, however much we might wish it was and I think that is an important point in the context of everything else I will say today. But let me at this stage pass on my condolences to everybody who has lost a loved one to this illness.

Now, I have a couple of points I want to update on today. First of all, let me report that two more walk-in testing centres have opened this week.

A new centre opened in Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire yesterday, and a centre is opening for bookings in Stirling shortly.

We are continuing to work with the UK Government to increase the number of walk-in sites across the country, and several more – including centres in Dundee and Inverness – are due to open later this month.

These add to the five walk-in centres that are already in operation – two in Glasgow and one each in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and St Andrews. These five centres, that are already operational, are within walking distance of student campuses, and therefore will be especially useful for students. But I want to stress that all walk-in centres are open to all members of the public. You can book a test by going onto the NHS Inform website.

As always, please don’t use public transport to travel to any testing centre.

If you do not have a car – and can’t walk, or cycle to a testing centre – please book a home testing kit through NHS Inform.

And remember, because this is an absolutely crucial point for all of us to understand, that you must start to self-isolate from the time you start to experience symptoms of Covid – you must not wait until you get a test result before you start self-isolating.

That is a really important point to make sure that we are doing everything we can to break the chains of transmission.

My second theme today, as you would expect, relates to the new regulations which come into force later today and tomorrow.

The regulations applying to hospitality will take effect at 6pm this evening – those relating to other premises like snooker and bingo halls take effect tomorrow. They will all  be in force until Sunday 25th October – in other words, across two weeks and three weekends.

First – and with the exception of five central belt health board areas that I will come onto shortly where tighter restrictions will apply – pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes will only be able to operate indoors on a very restricted basis.

They can only open indoors from 6 am to 6 pm, for the service of food and non-alcoholic drinks.

They can however continue to serve alcohol outdoors up to the existing curfew time of 10 pm.

In addition, hotel restaurants will be able to serve residents indoors beyond 6 pm, but will not be able to serve alcohol.

In all cafes, restaurants and bars that will remain open, the existing rules on meetings will continue to apply – so that means no more than 6 people can meet, and they should come from no more than 2 households.

However there is an exemption to these rules – and this exemption applies in all parts of Scotland – for weddings that have already been booked and of course for funerals. The current rules for these will continue to apply.

As I indicated earlier this week, we are introducing stricter restrictions in five health board regions: Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley.

I think you probably only need to look at today’s figures to get a sense of why we have taken that difficult decision. I mentioned that there are 440 new cases in Glasgow today, 306 in Lanarkshire, 192 in Lothian.

Numbers in Forth Valley and Ayrshire and Arran are lower – at 53 new cases in Forth Valley and 84 in Ayrshire and Arran – but they are still very high for the population of those areas.

And given that people live and work across all five areas, there can be a ripple effect between them, which is a further reason that tighter restrictions apply to all five of these health boards.

So in these areas, all licensed bars and restaurants will be required to close indoors and outdoors from 6pm this evening, though takeaways will be permitted. There is again an exception for hotels serving food and non-alcoholic drinks to residents.

Now I want to address a frustration about what I understand some see as a lack of clarity over the exemption for cafes – which are being allowed to stay open even in the central belt during the day as long as they don’t serve alcohol.

The reason for this café exemption is quite simple, it is to give people – particularly those who might be living alone and also working from home – somewhere they can still meet a friend for a coffee and a chat. And we judge that as important to help reduce the loneliness and isolation that comes with some of these restrictions that are in place right now.

But, and this is the other side of this balance, we are deliberately trying to reduce the volume of places that people come together so that we can stop the virus spreading, so we’ve got to draw any exemption really tightly.

That’s why we are not allowing premises like restaurants to decide to just stop serving alcohol, become cafes and therefore stay open – that would undermine the purpose of these restrictions.

But we did realise there was a potential anomaly for existing cafes that have an alcohol licence even though serving alcohol is very incidental to their business. What I announced the other day would have forced these cafes to close. In some areas – particularly rural areas – they might be the only cafe in a village.

So we decided to try to resolve this in a very targeted way. And in the 24 hours that we have been doing so, I readily accept that that has resulted in a lack of clarity.

But sometimes that’s the price we have to pay right now for trying to be as flexible as possible. It would have been easier and would have given much greater clarity just to stick to the position yesterday that cafes with a licence had to close.

But we decided to try to strike a different balance.

I can confirm that the Regulations being published today, I think they have just been published before the briefing started, have a definition of cafe which applies regardless of whether or not they have a licence. And that definition is –

“An establishment whose primary business activity, in the ordinary course of its business, is the sale of non alcoholic drinks, snacks or light meals.”

Now that is a definition based on what a cafe already does. It doesn’t allow a restaurant to now turn itself into a cafe.

I think business owners will know whether their establishment fits that definition or not. But any doubts or questions that any have should be discussed with local environmental health authorities.

I know how tough this is and I can’t tell you how sorry I am to be standing here in a position where we are requiring some businesses to close again. I am desperately sorry for that, and I know how desperately difficult this is for people trying to make a living, keep businesses they have worked to build up going and of course take care of their staff.

But government – all governments – are trying to strike right now almost impossible balances between lives and jobs.

And speaking for the Scottish Government, we are trying to do that as best we can. As I’ve said all along we will not always get it perfectly right but we are trying our best to get through this as well as we can.

Let me turn now to the other central belt restrictions that will be in place for the next two weeks.

Snooker and pool halls, indoor bowling alleys, casinos and bingo halls will close in those areas for two weeks, from tomorrow.

Contact sports for people aged 18 and over will also be suspended – with an exception for professional sports.

Indoor group exercise activities will not be allowed, although the current rules will remain in place for under-18s, and gyms and pools can remain open for individual exercise.

And outdoor live events will not be permitted in these five areas for the next two weeks.

And in general, we are advising people who live in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley not to travel outside the health board area that they live in, if they do not need to. Similarly, people in other parts of Scotland should not travel to those areas if they do not need to.

That said, we are not imposing mandatory travel restrictions at this stage. And we are not asking people to cancel any half-term breaks that they might have. But we are asking people, if you don’t need to travel – don’t do it at this stage.

Finally, if you live in these five health board areas please limit public transport to essential purposes only, for example, going to school or to work, if you are not able to work from home.

Now, I know that businesses who are affected by these temporary restrictions rightly want to know details of the compensation package that we are developing to support them for the next two week period.

We intended to publish details on the allocation of our £40 million support fund this morning. But we are now expecting an announcement from the Chancellor later today on furlough which might have an impact on our proposals, I hope they will have a positive impact on our proposals – so we will publish details after we have clarity on that. I would call on the UK government to ensure that whatever it announces today on furlough applies in Scotland from tonight.

However, I do now want to outline the three strands of the additional Scottish Government package:

  1. Support for employment – this was intended to top up the existing furlough scheme. However, it is this aspect that might be impacted – we hope positively – by the Chancellor’s announcement later today.
  2. We will give a cash grant over and above any employment support for each business that is being required to close or reduce their operations. This is likely to be at the same level as the support provided in Aberdeen when we had the local lockdown there – and that was, depending on rateable value, grants of £1000 or £1500.
  3. We will make available a discretionary fund for local authorities to distribute to businesses that are in need of support but might not fall into the categories that I have already covered.

As I say, we will publish details of that once we have clarity of the first strand which we hope to get from the Chancellor later on.  The restrictions which are coming into force today are significant, there is no way in which I can suggest otherwise. But the case numbers we have seen in recent weeks – including, increasingly, the figures now for people being hospitalised – show why these restrictions are necessary.

We have to stop the virus from spreading further. And having already restricted meetings between households in each other’s homes, the most important additional step we can take is to restrict people meeting up in places like bars and restaurants.

These measures still allow for some social contact in cafes as I have already outlined. And they do not prevent people from taking the half term holidays that they had already  booked, or from going ahead with weddings which have already been planned. We have tried to minimize the impact on your lives as much as possible while still doing as much as we need to do to get this virus under control.

But for a period, and this is why for a period of just over two weeks, we will remove some of the major opportunities the virus has to spread. And we do believe this can have and will have a significant impact on transmission.

And so I know these steps are unwelcome – and believe me when I say they have been imposed with the greatest reluctance – I would urge all of you to stick with them. The only alternative to restrictions like this right now is a continuing surge in COVID, which would take more lives and probably in turn require even tighter restrictions in the weeks and months to come.

Now in addition to the temporary restrictions which come into place this weekend, and this is the point I will end on – I would urge everyone to continue to stick with the existing rules and guidance.

None of us should be visiting each other’s homes at the moment – except for specific purposes like childcare. That is a really tough restriction but it is perhaps the most important way we have of stopping this virus jumping from household to household.

When we do meet – outdoors, or in cafes – the maximum group size is 6, from a maximum of two households.

In addition, only car-share if it is essential.

Work from home if you can.

Download the Protect Scotland app, if you haven’t already done so.

And finally, please remember FACTS – FACTS comprises the basic rules that if we all follow take away the opportunities for the virus to spread. So:

  • Face coverings
  • Avoid crowded places.
  • Clean hands and hard surfaces
  • Two metres distance from people in other households.
  • and Self isolate, and get tested, if you have symptoms.

I know this is tough, I really do know this is tough and none of what the government is doing right now is being done lightly. I do not want to be standing here imposing restrictions that limit the freedoms we all love and take for granted but this is, as it was at the very start of this pandemic, about saving lives and keeping each other as safe and as well as we possibly can.

We will get through this, it will pass, that much I do know, but I know it will pass easier and possibly more quickly if we pull together, stick together and look out for each other by doing all of these really important things. So my deep gratitude to all of you for that. Jason is now going to say a word of two before he and I turn to questions as usual.

Latest plan to stop COVID spread

Temporary steps announced to tackle record infection rates.

Further measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) are to come into effect tomorrow as Scotland recorded more than 1,000 new positive test results in a single day.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told parliament yesterday that actions are needed now to prevent a return to the peak level of infections experienced in spring by the end of this month.

She said: “While there are significant restrictions still in place – and they are hard and painful – we are living much more freely now than in the spring and early summer.

“We are determined – if at all possible – that this will continue to be the case. We are not going back into lockdown today. We are not closing schools. We are not halting the remobilisation of the NHS for non-Covid care. And we are not asking people to stay at home.

“The need for action is highlighted by today’s figures and, more fundamentally, in the evidence paper published today. To try to interrupt this trajectory, we must act now. While the measures will feel like a backward step, they are in the interests of protecting our progress overall.

“It is by taking the tough but necessary action now that we hope to avoid even tougher action in future.”

The new restrictions, backed by a new £40 million support fund for business and the existing UK Job Retention Scheme, will be in place nationwide for 16 days, with tighter restrictions across central belt areas where the infection rate is highest.

Restrictions on licensed premises will come into force from 6pm tomorrow (Friday 9 October), with all other restrictions applying from 00:01 Saturday 10 October.

The new measures are:

Nationwide (excepting central belt areas):

  • Hospitality (food and drink): all premises may only open indoors between 6am and 6pm, with no sales of alcohol
  • Hospitality (food and drink): premises may open outdoors until 10pm, with sales of alcohol (where licensed)
  • Takeaways (including from pubs and restaurants) can continue
  • Evening meals may be served in accommodation for residents only but no alcohol can be served
  • Current meeting rules, maximum of six people from two households, continue to apply
  • Specific life events, such as weddings and funerals, may continue with alcohol being served, with current meeting rules for these events (20 person limit in regulated premises only)

Central belt area focusing on five health board areas (Ayrshire & Arran; Forth Valley; Greater Glasgow & Clyde; Lanarkshire; Lothian):

  • All licensed premises will be required to close, with the exception of takeaway services
  • Cafés (unlicensed premises) which don’t have an alcohol licence will be able to open between 6am and 6pm
  • Takeaways (including from pubs and restaurants) can continue
  • Evening meals may be served in accommodation for residents only but no alcohol can be served
  • Specific life events, such as weddings and funerals, may continue with alcohol, with current meeting rules for these events (20 person limit in regulated premises only)
  • No group exercise classes for indoor gyms and sports courts, pools with an exemption for under 18s
  • No adult (18+) contact sports or training, except professional sports, indoor or outdoor
  • No outdoor live events
  • Snooker/pool halls, indoor bowling, casinos and bingo halls are to close
  • Public transport use should be minimised as much as possible, such as for education and work, where it cannot be done from home
  • Current meeting rules, maximum of six people from two households, continue to apply

Additionally, from this weekend, shops across Scotland are asked to return to two metres physical distancing and reintroduce the mitigations they put in place earlier in the pandemic, including one-way systems.

The challenge Scotland faces has also been set out in an evidence paper published today by senior clinical advisors: the Chief Medical Officer, the Chief Nursing Officer and the National Clinical Director. It shows the R number is currently higher in Scotland than in other UK nations and that three weeks after opening hospitality, the R number rose to 1 and above.

In the seven days up to Monday, the number of people in hospital with Covid increased by almost 80%. In the past week, cases in people over 80 years old increased by 60% and cases in the 60-79 year old age group more than doubled.

During the period these measures are in place, the Scottish Government will work with all sectors to review guidance in place to ensure all steps are being taken to minimise COVID-19 transmission and support compliance with regulations.

Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce has reacted to the announcement, which will decimate many of Scotland’s businesses – in particular, the hospitality sector which employs tens of thousands of people in Edinburgh.

In particular, businesses in the sector believe:

  • The evidence base on which the Government is making decisions which have such devastating impacts needs to be more robust and compelling. The Government’s own analysis is that 1 in 5 of those reporting infections have visited hospitality venues, and acknowledges that there is no evidence confirming where they acquired the virus
  • The First Minister acknowledges that the vast majority of hospitality businesses have spent scarce resources and significant time making their premises as safe as possible, yet still hospitality venues bear the brunt of restrictive measures
  • There has been NO genuine consultation with the sector on what measures are necessary and NO desire to seek any potential alternative solutions with businesses.

Joanne Davidson, Director of Policy at Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said: “Everyone in the country acknowledges the pandemic is a serious public health issue and we appreciate that Government has to make hard decisions in the current climate.

“However, it is an issue we need to tackle together, and that means involving businesses in the process. Taking decisions without recourse to those whose lives, businesses, employment and well-being are torn apart by these decisions is not the way to bring our country through this process successfully.

“Along with all of our colleagues in the Chamber network, we call on the Scottish Government to consult in a genuine way with business, to provide more robust data on which serious decisions are being based, and to seek solutions and meaningful engagement with the business community which minimise the impact and ensure adequate and appropriate financial support is made available to protect jobs and livelihoods.”

Federation of Small Businesses Scotland is warning that the mental health of small business owners and the self-employed has suffered during this pandemic.

FSB’s Andrew McRae said: “The vast majority of those in business want to be – and are – playing their part in tackling the crisis. But this year has taken its toll on the mental health of those that work for themselves, especially those that operate in certain sectors.

“Governments north and south of the border need to ensure there’s enough help on offer to see smaller firms through a crisis that’s not of their making. These local firms aren’t expendable, and care needs to be taken not to treat them as such.”

FSB offers a range of mental health support advice for members and the wider small business community.  

LAST ORDERS!

CAPITAL’S PUBS TO CLOSE ON FRIDAY AT 6pm FOR TWO WEEKS

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh this afternoon (7 October 2020):

Presiding Officer, I will update the chamber today on the current position in relation to Covid.

I will give an assessment of the current course of the pandemic; propose difficult but important temporary measures to stem the increase in cases; set out how we will support businesses affected by them; and update the chamber on the longer term work we are doing to further improve our ability to live with Covid.

In all of this, I will be very frank about the challenges we face and the difficult balances we must try to strike.

None of this is easy, I am acutely aware that in every decision we take lives and jobs are at stake and I want to assure, not just the chamber but the country, that none of these decisions are taken lightly.

First, though, I will provide a summary of the daily statistics that were published a short time ago.

Since yesterday, an additional 1054 cases have been confirmed. That represents 13% of the people newly tested, and takes the total number of cases to 34,760. A total of 319 patients are currently in hospital with confirmed Covid-19, which is an increase of 57 since yesterday.

And 28 people are in intensive care, which is an increase of 3 since yesterday. I regret to report that 1 further death has been registered of a patient who had been confirmed as having the virus. The total number of deaths in Scotland under that measurement is therefore now 2,533.

National Records of Scotland has also just published its weekly update, which includes cases where COVID is a suspected or contributory cause of death.

Today’s update shows that by last Sunday, the total number of registered deaths linked to Covid was 4,276.

20 of those deaths were registered last week. That is the highest weekly number of deaths since late June.

Every single one of these deaths represents the loss of an irreplaceable individual. 

So once again, I want to send my deepest condolences to all those who are currently grieving.

These figures illustrate the rising challenge we again face from this virus.

That challenge is also set out – starkly – in an evidence paper published today by the Scottish Government’s senior clinical advisors – the Chief Medical Officer, the Chief Nursing Officer and the National Clinical Director.

It assesses our current situation in relation to Covid.

And it explains – as I will try to do in this statement – why we need to introduce additional measures to control the virus; why it is urgent that we act now; and why we have decided upon the specific actions that I am setting out today.

Before I come onto that let me emphasise some of the more positive elements of our current position.

It is important – for the morale of all of us – that we don’t forget that progress has been made. It might not feel this way, but the situation now is better than it was in March.

We are benefiting from the sacrifices we made over the summer. By driving the virus to very low levels then, we have helped to ensure that – even after several weeks of increases – the estimated total number of cases is currently just 13% of the peak level back in March.

Cases are rising, but they are not rising as quickly as they were then.

In addition, and most importantly of all, we now have Test & Protect teams across the country, who are doing exceptional work. Test & Protect is now bearing a lot of the strain of controlling the virus.

And of course we understand more now about how to reduce the risk of transmission – for example, by meeting outdoors rather than indoors if possible, wearing face coverings, cleaning hands thoroughly, and keeping our distance from people in other households.

So while there are significant restrictions still in place – and they are hard and painful – we are living much more freely now than in the spring and early summer.

We are determined – if at all possible – that this will continue to be the case.

So let me be clear. We are not going back into lockdown today. We are not closing schools, colleges or universities. We are not halting the remobilisation of the NHS for non-Covid care. And we are not asking people to stay at home.

So while the measures I announce today will feel like a backward step, and in many respects I know they are, they are in the interests of protecting our progress overall.

It is by taking the tough but necessary action now, that we hope to avoid even tougher action in future.

Let me turn now to more detail to the state of the virus.

The need for action is highlighted by the daily figures I reported a moment ago, more fundamentally, in the evidence paper published today.

It’s worth remembering that when I updated Parliament just over two weeks ago, the average number of new cases being reported each day was 285. That was up from 102 three weeks previously.

Now, we are reporting an average of 788 new cases each day. In addition, I can report that in the 7 days up to Monday, the number of people in hospital with Covid increased by almost 80%.

And the number of people who died with Covid last week was the highest for 14 weeks. In fact, there was the same number of deaths in the last week alone as in the whole of the previous month.

The increase in the numbers of people in hospital with, and sadly dying from Covid reflect the rise we are now seeing in new cases among older age groups. In the second half of September, cases were rising most rapidly in the younger age groups.

However, in the past week, cases in people over 80 years old increased by 60%, and cases in the 60 to 79 year old age group more than doubled.

And we are seeing geographic as well as demographic spread.

Without a doubt – and by some distance – the highest levels of infection are across the central belt.

We are particularly concerned about Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire & Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley – and that will be reflected in some of what I say later.

But that should not obscure the fact that numbers are rising across Scotland. The majority of our health board areas are now recording more than 50 new cases per 100,000 of their population each week. And virtually every heath board area has a rising number of cases. The only exceptions are Orkney and Shetland, and even they have had cases in recent weeks.

There is also, as we speak, a significant outbreak in the Western Isles.

So the need to act – and to act across the country – is clear. What is also clear is the need to take additional action now.

I mentioned earlier that prevalence of the virus is currently around 13% of its March peak.

However, we estimate that the number of new Covid cases is currently growing by around 7% each day.

So without action – and this is perhaps the starkest warning in today’s evidence paper – we are likely to return to the peak level of infections we had in the Spring by the end of this month.

It’s also instructive to consider the experience of other countries. Our modelling suggests that we are approximately four weeks behind France and six weeks behind Spain in the resurgence of the virus.

Their resurgence, like ours, was initially concentrated among younger people. However it spread to other age groups and they are now seeing significantly more hospital admissions, more people in intensive care, and more deaths.

It is to interrupt that trajectory that we must act now.

Of course, we have already taken perhaps the most important – and certainly the most painful – step we can to reduce transmission.

For the last 12 days, apart from certain limited exceptions, we have not been able to meet up in each other’s homes.

That should already be making a difference to infection rates even if, because there is always a time lag between introducing new measures and the impact they have, we are not yet seeing it reflected in our figures.

And let me take the opportunity to emphasise again today how vitally important it is that we all stick to that rule. It’s incredibly hard for all of us not to visit friends and family, or have them visit us. But it is the single most effective measure we can take to stop Covid passing from one household to another.

So please stick with it.

That measure is vital, but the clinical advice I have received now is that it is not sufficient. We need to do more and we need to do it now.

And to those who may wonder and ask, understandably, if the measures I set out today go too far, let me be clear about this.

If this was a purely one-dimensional decision – if the immediate harm from Covid was all we had to consider – it is quite likely that we would go further. But, 7 months into this pandemic, I am acutely aware that this is not and cannot be a one-dimensional decision. We have a duty to balance all of the different harms caused by the pandemic.

We must consider the direct harm to health from the virus – which must be reduced – but do that alongside the harm being done to jobs and the economy, which in turn has an impact on people’s health and wellbeing.

And we have to consider the wider harms to health and wellbeing that the virus – and the restrictions deployed to control it – are having on all of us.

For all of these reasons, we are applying a far more targeted approach than we did in March – one which reduces opportunities for the virus to spread, while keeping businesses and other activities as open as possible.

And we are not recommending that people who shielded over the summer, should return to staying completely indoors. We know how damaging that is to your wellbeing. But we do recommend that you take extra care – especially if you live in the central belt. You can now access information about infection levels in your local neighbourhood on the Public Health Scotland website.

Presiding officer, let me now set out the additional measures that we are proposing.

The measures on hospitality are intended to be in force for 16 days, from Friday at 6pm to Sunday 25 October inclusive – in other words across the next two weeks and three weekends.

So, firstly, with the exception of the five health board areas I will talk about shortly – pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes will be able to operate indoors on the following very restricted basis only:

During the day, from 6am to 6pm, for the service of food and non-alcoholic drinks only.

Hotel restaurants will be able to operate beyond 6pm, but only for residents and without alcohol.

The reason we are not closing indoor hospitality completely is that we know the benefits, in terms of reducing loneliness and isolation, of giving people – particularly those who live alone – somewhere they can meet a friend for a coffee and a chat.

But the restrictions will be strictly applied. And all the current regulations and the limits on meeting a maximum of 6 people from 2 households in indoor public places will still apply.

Again with the exception of the central belt areas I will mention shortly, bars, pubs, restaurants and cafes can continue to serve alcohol outdoors up to the existing curfew time of 10pm, and subject to the 6/2 rule on group size.

There will be an exemption to these rules – in all parts of Scotland – it’s important to stress this, for celebrations associated with specific life events such as weddings that are already booked and funerals. The current rules for those will continue to apply.

These are the new measures that will take effect nationwide.

However, because of higher levels of infection in the central belt, we are introducing stricter restrictions in the following five health board areas – Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire & Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley.

In these areas, all licensed premises – with the exception of hotels for residents – will be required to close indoors and outdoors, though takeaways will be permitted. Hotels will remain open for residents.

Cafes which don’t have an alcohol license will be able to stay open until 6pm to support social isolation.

In addition, snooker and pool halls, indoor bowling alleys, casinos and bingo halls will close in these areas for two weeks from 10 October.

Contact sports for people aged 18 and over will be suspended for the next two weeks – with an exception for professional sports.

And indoor group exercise activities will not be allowed – although the current rules will remain in place for under 18s.  Gyms can remain open for individual exercise.

Outdoor live events will not be permitted in these five regions for the next two weeks.

And finally, we are asking people living in these 5 health board areas to avoid public transport unless it is absolutely necessary – for example for going to school or to work, if home working is not an option.

We are not imposing mandatory travel restrictions at this stage, and specifically, we are not insisting that people cancel any half term breaks they have planned.

However, in general, we are advising people living in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire & Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley not to travel outside the health board area they live in, if you don’t need to – and likewise people in other parts of Scotland should not travel to these areas if they don’t need to.

More detail of all that I have just set out will be available on the Scottish Government website.

I now want to set out some of the reasoning behind these decisions, and the focus on hospitality.

I know that the vast majority of pubs, bars and restaurants have worked exceptionally hard over the last few months to ensure the safety of their staff and customers. I am grateful to them for that.

However the evidence paper published today sets out why these settings present a particular risk. The R number seems to have risen above 1 approximately three weeks after the hospitality sector opened up. We know that more than 1/5 of people contacted by test and protect, report having visited a hospitality setting.

It doesn’t mean that is absolutely where they got the virus but it does show these settings pose a particular risk of transmitting the virus.

That makes sense from what we know about how the virus is spread.

Indoor environments, where different households from different age groups can mix, inevitably present a risk of transmission.  That risk can be increased, in some hospitality premises, if good ventilation is difficult, and if it is hard to control the movement of people. And the presence of alcohol can of course affect people’s willingness to physically distance. 

For all of these reasons, significantly restricting licensed premises for sixteen days temporarily removes one of the key opportunities the virus has to jump from household to household. It is an essential part of our efforts to get the R number back below 1.

It is also worth noting that many other countries are also introducing restrictions on hospitality – Ireland, France, Germany and Belgium have announced a variety of different measures over the past few days.

I mentioned earlier that one of the things we are trying to do is to balance the public health harm caused by Covid, with wider economic and social harms. 

I know that the measures we are proposing today, although they are temporary, will have a significant impact on many businesses and I am sorry for that. But since the Government is placing an obligation on businesses, we also have an obligation to help them financially.

I can announce that we are making available an additional £40 million to support businesses that will be affected by these measures over the next two weeks. We will work with the affected sectors – obviously especially hospitality – in the coming days to ensure that this money provides the most help, to those who most need it and gets to them as quickly as possible.

For the rest of this month, businesses can also use the UK Government’s job retention scheme. However, that now requires a significant contribution from employers – so one of the things we will discuss with businesses, in relation to our own support package, is how we can mitigate some or all of that contribution.

As I have indicated, our intention is that these additional measures will be in place for just over two weeks, incorporating three weekends – from 6pm on Friday to Sunday, 25 October. Of course, we will keep the situation under review between now and then, and keep Parliament updated.

We hope that the restrictions already in place and those I have announced today will stem the increase in new cases. But I can’t stress enough that is fundamentally is down to all of us.

The more we comply with all of the restrictions and advice the more effective they will be.

It is also important because we want these restrictions to be temporary that we use the next two weeks to prepare, protect and prevent – to further strengthen our resilience and our ability to live alongside this virus. So I can confirm over the next period we will also take the following steps.

Firstly, we will introduce regulations to extend the mandatory use of face coverings in indoor communal settings – this will include, for example, staff canteens and corridors in workplaces.

We will take action to strengthen compliance with the different strands of the FACTS advice – focusing on areas where we know from research that compliance is not yet high enough, for example, the need to self isolate.

I can also confirm that, from this weekend and across Scotland, we are asking shops to return to 2 metre physical distancing and asking them to reintroduce the mitigations they put in place earlier in the pandemic – for example, one way systems in supermarkets.

We will also work across all other sectors to review – and where necessary tighten – the guidance and regulation on their operating practices.

In addition, over the next two weeks, we will conduct a further review of our testing strategy – setting out the further steps we will take to further expand capacity, which is already underway, and build resilience and also the further steps we will take to extend testing to more people and more groups of people without symptoms.

And, lastly, we will finalise a strategic framework, setting out the different levels of intervention which can be adopted in future – either locally or across Scotland – depending on how the virus is spreading. We very much hope to align the broad framework with those being considered by other UK nations – although each nation will take its own decisions on implementation.

We will put, subject of course to Parliament’s agreement, put this strategic framework to a debate and vote in Parliament in the week after the recess.

Presiding officer, I am well aware that the measures I have outlined today are disruptive to many businesses – obviously especially hospitality businesses – and will be unwelcome to many people across the country.

However although they are significant – as they need to be, to make an impact – they do not represent a lockdown. In fact, they are designed to reduce the likelihood of a future lockdown.

We are not requiring people to stay inside all day as we were earlier in the year.

Schools will stay open.  Learning will continue in our Universities and Colleges.

Shops will continue to trade, and businesses like manufacturing and construction will continue.

And these new restrictions are intended to last for 16 days. They are intended to be short, sharp action to arrest a worrying increase in infection.

Although they are temporary, they are needed.

Without them, there is a very real risk the virus, presiding officer, will be out of control by the end of this month.

But with them, we hope to slow its spread. That will help us to keep schools and businesses – including hospitality businesses – open over the winter. And fundamentally it will save lives.

So please follow these new rules. And continue to take the other basic steps that will protect you and each other.

Do not visit other people’s homes.

Work from home if you can.

Download the Protect Scotland app, if you can and haven’t already done so.

And remember FACTS.

Face coverings; avoid crowded places; clean hands and hard surfaces; 2 metre distancing; and self isolate, and get tested if you have symptoms.

Sticking to all of this isn’t easy, after seven long months it is harder than it has ever been. But it is essential. It’s the best way to look out for each other, and now more than ever, we all need that spirit of love and solidarity that has served us so well.

And hard through it is to believe it right now, all the hard sacrifices we are making will hasten the brighter days that do lie ahead. The pandemic will pass.

So, let’s all stick with it – and above all, let’s stick together.

My thanks, again, to everyone across the country, for all you are doing.

‘DEVASTATING NEWS’

Responding to the First Minister’s announcement for further restrictions for pubs, CAMRA’s Director for Scotland Joe Crawford said:  “The First Minister’s announcement banning the serving of alcohol indoors for 16 days across the country – and forcing pubs in five health board areas in the central belt to close altogether – is absolutely devastating news for pubs and breweries.  

“Publicans who have been operating at reduced rates, and who have already invested thousands of pounds of their dwindling reserves making their premises COVID-secure, now face 16 days without any turnover whatsoever. Understandably, they feel like pubs have become the scapegoat for the pandemic. 

“The £40 million in support for the hospitality sector is welcome and necessary but the devil will be in the detail.

Without proper financial compensation now – and longer-term financial support to help deal with reduced trade as a result of restrictions like the curfew – we risk seeing thousands of pubs, clubs and breweries closing for good before Christmas.” 

 LICENSED TRADE IS THE ‘SACRIFICIAL LAMB’ – SLTA

Responding to the announcement Colin Wilkinson, Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) managing director, said: “The recent introduction of the 10pm closing time plus the two-household group of six rule is having a devasting effect on the industry – closures are looming and now today’s announcement of further restrictions and temporary lockdowns will only accelerate business failure and job losses.

“A recent survey highlighted that nearly 40% of hospitality businesses were considering closure or business exit. In September, an SLTA survey of 600 on-trade premises highlighted that within the pub and bar sector, 12,500 jobs could go.

“These figures have increased dramatically in only a month. When the industry reopened after lockdown and with the then restrictive measures in place, it was estimated that two-thirds of hospitality businesses could still be viable, but only just, with one-third of businesses unable to open.

Now that figure has flipped and in our estimation two-thirds of hospitality businesses could be mothballed or go under. Over 50% of jobs in the pub and bar sector could also be lost which will have a particularly deep impact on the employment of young people as over 40% of staff employed are under the age of 25.

“Our research already tells us that many in the industry are on the precipice of business failure and these further restriction measures announced today and the much quieter winter season approaching leads us to only one conclusion: the sector is now heading into a scenario of ‘last man standing’.

“Details of the First Minster’s announcement of a £40m financial support package are awaited, but the question is will this be enough?  In our opinion the hospitality sector in general needs substantially greater and far more reaching support than has just been announced and does not come anywhere near to saving our industry.  

“The SLTA will be working with the Scottish Government on how this funding will be distributed to those affected by today’s announcement.

“Responsible operators are running safe, carefully monitored establishments so in our opinion there is no need for the Scottish Government to ‘go further’ on pubs.

“Actions by governments are meant to be proportionate and evidence based and despite reference today to newly released “evidence paper” the industry continues to call on the Government to provide the evidence for infection rates stemming directly from the licensed trade.

“Industry figures suggest that there are very low infection rates of staff within our pubs and bars which suggests to us that the industry is doing everything that it can and is providing as safe an environment as possible – otherwise, if we were a major causal route of infection, this would surely be reflected in the infection rate of hospitality staff.

“It would appear again that Scotland’s licensed trade is the sacrificial lamb and paying the price for other sectors that do not operate under such restrictive measures as we have seen recently.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s address on Coronavirus measures

Address to the nation on 22 September 2020

The last six months have been unprecedented. They’ve been the hardest many of us have ever lived through.

But through our collective efforts across Scotland, we did beat Covid back.

As a result – although too much heartbreak has been endured and too many families are grieving – many lives were also saved.

But as we enter winter, and with many lockdown restrictions now thankfully lifted, the challenge is once again getting harder.

Albeit from the very low level we achieved in the summer, cases are rising again.

In the last three weeks, they have almost trebled.

And as the virus spreads, we see more people being admitted to hospital again and sadly dying.

So we are once again at a tipping point – we must act to get Covid back under control and protect the things that matter most to us.

In a global pandemic of a virus with as yet no vaccine, we simply can’t have 100% normality. No country can. So we must choose our priorities.

Our priorities are saving lives and protecting health.

  • Keeping schools open.
  • Restarting NHS services.
  • Ensuring care homes are safe.
  • And protecting jobs and livelihoods.

It is to safeguard these priorities that I must ask all of you again to make sacrifices. Sacrifices for our national well-being. They are not easy but please believe me when I say they are essential.

We have decided that from Friday there will be a national curfew for pubs, bars and restaurants. They will have to close by 10pm – to reduce the time people spend there.

And from tomorrow, we are all being asked not to visit each other’s homes – because we know that is often how the virus spreads most easily from one household to another.

There are exceptions – for care of the vulnerable, extended households, childcare and tradespeople.

But generally, by staying out of other people’s houses for now, we give ourselves the best chance of bringing Covid back under control.

We can still meet outdoors with one other household in groups of up to 6 people

And because we know this is especially difficult for children and young people we’ve tried to build in more flexibility for you.

If you are younger than 12, there are no limits on playing with your friends outdoors.

And if you are between 12 and 17 you can meet your friends outdoors in groups of 6 – but you don’t all have to be from just two households.

Now, for everyone – adults and children – I know that today must feel like a step backwards.

But please know that thanks to all your efforts over the last six months, we are in a much stronger position than in the spring.

Cases are rising but less rapidly than back then.

Our Test & Protect system is working well – tracing contacts and breaking chains of transmission.

We have much more information on how and where the virus spreads.

And we know what we need to do to protect ourselves and others.

And all of us have a part to play.

So I am asking everyone – please, follow the new rules. They will make a difference.

If you can and haven’t already, please also go to protect.scot and download the Protect Scotland app – so more people who might be at risk of the virus can be traced quickly and asked to self-isolate.

And remember FACTS – face coverings, avoid crowded areas; clean your hands and surfaces; keep two metre distancing; and self-isolate and get tested if you have symptoms.

Finally, I know that all of this has been incredibly tough – and six months on it only gets tougher. But never forget that humanity has come through even bigger challenges than this one.

And though it doesn’t feel like it now, this virus will pass. It won’t last forever and one day, hopefully soon, we will be looking back on it, not living through it.

So though we are all struggling with this – and believe me, we are all struggling – let’s pull together. Let’s keep going, try to keep smiling, keep hoping and keep looking out for each other.

Be strong, be kind and let’s continue to act out of love and solidarity.

I will never find the words to thank all of you enough for the enormous sacrifices you have made so far.

And I am sorry to be asking for more.

But a belief I hold on to – and one I am asking you to keep faith with in those moments when it all feels too hard – is this: If we stick with it – and, above all, if we stick together – we will get through it.

New measures to drive down infection rate

Household restrictions and 10pm closing time for hospitality settings

Further measures to protect the population from the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been announced by the First Minister yesterday (Tuesday) as Scotland faces an upsurge in cases.

The new restrictions focus on no household visits and a 10pm closing time for all hospitality settings.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said today that this action is necessary in order to prevent a resurgence in community transmission of the virus and the potential for a rapid return to the pressures the NHS experienced earlier in the year.

Measures include:

Inside people’s homes (from today, Wednesday 23 September)

  • Do not meet people from any other households in your home or another person’s home socially, unless they are in your extended household
  • These rules also apply to children
  • Children whose parents do not live in the same household can move between homes, as can non-cohabiting couples
  • Very limited exemptions apply for childcare, and for tradespeople

Private gardens or public outdoors spaces (from today, Wednesday 23 September)

  • A maximum of six people from two households can meet in outdoor spaces
  • You should limit as far as possible the total number of households you meet in a day
  • Under-12s do not count towards the maximum number of households or number of people who can meet outdoors. Under-12s do not have to physically distance
  • A maximum of six 12 to 17 year olds can meet in outdoor spaces, with no household limit. Physical distancing is still required

Indoors in public spaces (from today, Wednesday 23 September)

  • A maximum of six people from two households can meet in public indoor spaces such as cafes, pubs and restaurants
  • Children under 12 from those two households do not count towards the limits

Hospitality (from 00:01 Friday 25 September 2020)

  • Pubs, restaurants and all hospitality settings will be required to close at 10pm
  • Table service will continue to be required in all hospitality premises

Car sharing

  • You should only car share with members of your own, or extended, household, and follow guidance when there is no alternative

Working

  • You must continue to work from home where practicable

These restrictions will be reviewed within three weeks and further guidance will made available where necessary.

Action – and adherence to restrictions – is needed now to safeguard lives, protect from infection and bring the R number down below one.

The First Minister said: “It is worth stressing that because of the collective sacrifices we all made to drive infection levels down over the summer, the growth in cases is from a low base and – at this stage – far less rapid than in March.

“I want to thank the people of Scotland for their cooperation, forbearance and the sacrifices they have made – but these measures are essential in ensuring we do not let this virus get out of control again.

“While these measures are tough, we believe they can make a significant difference while keeping our schools, public services and as many businesses open as far as possible.

“Early data suggests that restrictions currently in place in west central Scotland are starting to slow the increase of cases. So by extending household restrictions nationwide now, in an early and preventative way, we hope it will help to bring the R number down and the virus back under control.

On hospitality measures, the First Minister said: “I want to thank those businesses that are making huge efforts to ensure compliance. However, I want to be clear with the hospitality trade about this.

“Notwithstanding the economic implications, further restrictions – including possible closure – will be unavoidable if the rules within pubs and restaurants on hygiene, face coverings, maximum numbers in groups, and the distance between them are not fully complied with.”

First Minister: ‘COVID is spreading again’

Appeal to younger people: please think about your loved ones

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House, yesterday (Tuesday 8th September):

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us again today. As usual I will take us through the daily COVID statistics starting with today’s positive cases.

I can report that an additional 176 cases were confirmed yesterday. That represents 2.3% of people newly tested yesterday and takes the total number of cases now to 21,719.

As usual the full health board breakdown will be published on the website later on, but I can give you the provisional information I have which is that 91 cases are in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 32 in Lanarkshire, 16 in Lothian and 8 in Ayrshire and Arran.

The remaining 29 cases are spread across the other seven mainland health boards.

And it is worth me stressing today that we have positive cases reported today in every mainland health board area.

I can also confirm that 267 patients are currently in hospital with COVID, that is 11 more than yesterday and six people are in intensive care, which is one more than yesterday.

I am also very sad to report that in the past 24 hours, three deaths have been registered of patients who first tested positive over the previous 28 days. The total number of deaths, under this measurement, is now 2,499.

Today is the first occasion on which three deaths have been reported in our daily figures since 30 June.

This reminds us of the impact that the virus has had, and continues to have. But most of all of course, that figure speaks of three individual tragedies.

I want to send my condolences to those who are grieving as a result of the deaths reported today, and to everyone who has lost a loved one during this pandemic.

My remarks today are going to focus very much on the announcement that the Scottish Government made last night about the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area and then say something about the more general situation.

The Scottish Government’s Resilience Committee met late yesterday afternoon to discuss the restrictions which were put in place a week ago today in Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.

We considered a report from the Incident Management Team, and consulted the representatives of the local authorities affected.

Having assessed the latest information about new cases, and assessed advice from our senior clinical advisors, the Scottish Government decided yesterday that existing restrictions must remain in place for these three local authority areas.

We also concluded – on the evidence presented – that the restrictions should also be extended to cover two other local authority areas in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board region and those two additional council areas where Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire, both of these areas recorded a high number of new cases in the past week.

So that means that for anyone who lives in these five local authority areas, just as a reminder that is Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow City, East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire, that the following restrictions will apply for at least the next week.

Can I just recap, I think I may at one point have mixed up East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire, the restrictions were in place last week for West Dunbartonshire and they are now in addition in place for East Dunbartonshire. So, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Glasgow City, just in case I didn’t mention all of these areas correctly. So let me recap what the restrictions that are in place in these areas are.

First, if you live in these council areas, you should not host people from other households in your own home, and you should not visit someone else’s home – no matter where it is.

And to use my own example, I live in Glasgow City, I should not have people in my home and nor should I visit my parents who live in Ayrshire even though Ayrshire is not one of the affected council areas.

Secondly, if anyone in a household is identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID – then we are advising everyone in that household should self-isolate for 14 days.

That is different to the normal rules – where only the person who is a contact has to isolate – but our advice is that this extension is essential at this stage to help us break the chains of transmission.

And finally, visiting in care homes across Greater Glasgow and Clyde is restricted to outdoor visits only unfortunately, except for essential visits. Hospital visiting is for essential purposes only.

More details – including information about exceptions to the rules on household meetings, for carers and extended households – are available on the Scottish Government website.

I know that these rules are really unwelcome. As I already said, I live in Glasgow, and know how frustrating they are and I, just like all of you watching, do not want them to be in place for any longer than is necessary.

But overall I believe that they represent a proportionate – and hopefully effective – but also absolutely necessary response to a worrying increase in COVID across these areas.

The restrictions will be reviewed again next week. They will stay in place for as long as they are needed – but not for any longer than that.

Yesterday’s meeting also discussed the situation in other parts of Scotland – such as Inverclyde, and North and South Lanarkshire. At the moment, the number of new cases in these areas does not warrant additional restrictions – however this will be kept under close review.

We also discussed the hospitality sector.

The evidence we have at this stage suggests that house gatherings – which by their nature are hard to regulate for things like physical distancing – have made the biggest contribution to the spread of COVID across Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

They are also a setting in which older and more vulnerable people are often most at risk of infection because older and more vulnerable people are perhaps more likely to socialise at home rather than visit pubs and restaurants.

As a result, our restrictions focus on meetings in people’s houses. However some transmission we know is taking place in pubs and restaurants, and so we will also keep that under close review.

We will discuss with the five local authorities concerned, what further steps we can take to ensure that pubs, bars and restaurants are operating in line with all the necessary rules.

In doing that, we will learn lessons from the work that environmental health officers did in Aberdeen before pubs and bars there were able to re-open.

One point I would stress here, though, is that there has always been – and there remains – a responsibility for customers.

The rules on indoor meetings still apply in pubs.

So when you go out there should be now more than eight people from a maximum of three households in a group in a pub or restaurant; and different households should physically distance.

If you arrive in a bar which is a bit too crowded, and where physical distancing is difficult, then my strong advice would be not to stay there. Try to find a venue that is less busy.

And when you do go out, it is far better to stay in one pub than to visit several.

If you spend time in three or four different bars, you are significantly increasing the number of people who could transmit COVID to you.

And if you have COVID, but don’t yet have symptoms, you are significantly increasing the number of people you could infect.

In addition, if you think about how Test and Protect system works, one person visiting several pubs in a night or a week, creates a far bigger challenge to them than someone who just stays in one venue.

So please, try to ensure that you stay in the same place if at all possible. It makes a difference to your safety and also to the safety of those around you.

This is an area which is hard to regulate, and we do not want if we can avoid it, have to create rules or laws.

But there is, very clearly, a responsibility for individuals here.

The hospitality sector has reopened, and we want people to support the sector and of course to be able to safely enjoy themselves.

But we are still living in a global pandemic and that pandemic is now accelerating again across the country and of course and it is still accelerating across the world. So you should not be socialising in the same way as you were last year or the earlier part of this year before the pandemic struck

I also want to take the opportunity to remind you again that the international situation remains very volatile too – we see the number of cases raising in many countries across Europe and further afield so my advice is that you should still be cautious at this time about non-essential foreign travel.

The final point I want to make is that the situation I have outlined today is a sharp reminder for all of us– not just people in Greater Glasgow and Clyde but for all of us – that COVID unfortunately is spreading again.

That was always likely to happen when we substantially lifted lockdown.

That means we have to think carefully about whether it is safe or possible to open up further at this stage.

It is only fair that I signal now that – while final decisions have not been taken – when we do our latest three weekly review on Thursday, we may well not be able to go ahead with any further easing of restrictions at this time.

Obviously we want to do everything possible to avoid the situation where more restrictions that have been lifted have to be re-imposed.

And the key to avoiding that rests with all of us. The decisions we all make as individuals, still affect the safety and well-being of our communities.

So please do everything you can to avoid creating a bridge for the virus to cross over from one person to another or one household to another, if you do that there is less chance of you getting the virus and less chance of you transmitting the virus and less chance of course of you being contacted by Test and Protect and asked to self-isolate as a contact of someone who has tested positive

And before I finish briefly let me again, like I did yesterday, take head on an argument that we hear more frequently just now – and that argument is that because the virus is, at the moment, infecting more young people than old people, and because we are not yet seeing a sharp rise in serious illness or deaths, then we don’t need to worry about this.

That is, in my view, potentially a really dangerous delusion.

Firstly, the risk of a young person getting seriously ill or dying is thankfully lower – but it is not zero. And I would ask people of all ages to remember that.

Second, we are seeing warning signs here already. I have reported three deaths today – that’s the first time I’ve had to do that in more than two months, so we should listen to the warning signals that already here.

And thirdly, we don’t live in entirely generationally segregated ways. If transmission becomes established in the younger population, it will eventually reach the older, more vulnerable population.

So to younger people, please think about your loved ones as well as yourselves, which I know everybody does.

And to older people, be even more vigilant about hygiene and distancing if you are spending time with young relatives who may have been in pubs or restaurants.

And to all of us, let’s treat the current situation with the seriousness it most certainly merits.

Abide by the rules and remember that the simplest way in which all of us can deny the virus the opportunity to spread, is by following the FACTS advice.

These are the five golden rules that all of us must follow to protect ourselves, our families, our communities, protect the NHS and ultimately let’s not lose sight of this, save lives. So let me just end with a reminder of these five rules.

• Face coverings should be worn in enclosed spaces
• Avoid crowded places, whether they are indoor or outdoor.
• Clean your hands and clean hard as well.
• keep to Two metre distancing where ever you can. I know that that can be difficult, but it remains a really vital protection against this virus spreading.
• and remember to Self-isolate, and book a test, if you have symptoms of COVID.

It’s not easy for any of us to do all of this, but doing all of this helps us individually to contribute to a situation where collectively we have the best chance of keeping this virus under control, so my thanks to all of you for joining us again today.

Social gatherings above six banned in England from 14 September

Social gatherings of more than six people will be illegal in England from Monday following a steep rise in coronavirus cases.

A law change will ban larger groups meeting anywhere socially indoors or outdoors, but it will not apply to schools, workplaces or Covid-secure weddings, funerals and organised team sports.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will confirm details of the new restrictions later today.