Tag: rule of six

First Minister: Stick to the FACTS

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing at St Andrew’s House yesterday (Friday 11 September):

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. I am joined here today by the deputy chief medical officer Dr Nicola Steedman who will say a few words shortly.

I will start though with the usual run through of the daily statistics.

An additional 175 positive cases were confirmed yesterday.

That represents 2.7% of the people who were newly tested yesterday and the total number of cases is now 22,214.

80 of today’s cases are in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 39 in Lanarkshire, 24 in Lothian and 12 in Ayrshire & Arran. The remaining 20 are spread across another 6 health boards.

I should flag up that the situation in Lanarkshire is causing some particular concern today. There will be expert public health discussions over the course of today and, depending on the judgments and conclusions they arrive at, it may be that some additional restrictions will have to be applied there. We will keep people updated.

I can also confirm that 269 patients are currently in hospital with confirmed COVID, which is three more than yesterday.

Eight people are in intensive care, which is one more than yesterday.

But I am pleased to say that in the last 24 hours, no deaths have been registered of patients who first tested positive.

The total number of deaths, under this measurement, therefore remains at 2,499.

Of course, that total, always reminds us that this virus has had a terrible impact and I want again to convey my condolences to everybody who has lost someone.

Today I want to focus on two key announcements that we made yesterday just to underline their importance of both.

Firstly, the Protect Scotland app, which you’ve probably heard, was launched yesterday. It is now available for download.

More than 600,000 people have already downloaded the app – so if you were one of those, thank you for doing so.

But for the app to be as effective as possible, to help us in the fight against COVID and to help us live a bit more normally, then we need as many people as possible across Scotland to download it and use it.

So if you haven’t yet done so, you can download it via the Protect.Scot website, you’ll see that on the front of the podium or you can go to the Apple or Google play app stores and search Protect Scotland and you’ll find the app there.

The process for downloading it is very quick and simple. You don’t need to provide any personal information.

The way in which the app works is also really simple.

If you test positive for COVID, you will be given a code by Test & Protect to enter into the app.

Once you do that, the app will automatically identifies any other app users you have been in close proximity with – that means anyone you have been within two metres of, for more than 15 minutes, within a particular time scale.

The app will then immediately alert those people that a contact of theirs has tested positive – though they won’t know who that is – and it will provide them with information and links to advice on self-isolating.

Similarly, you will receive an alert if a contact of yours has tested positive – but again you won’t know who they are. Everything about the app is anonymous and confidential.

It doesn’t replace the current Test & Protect system, but instead it’s an enhancement of that.

It will be particularly useful for settings – such as public transport – where we tend to spend time in close proximity to people we don’t know so we wouldn’t be able to give the details of these people to a contact tracer who telephones us.

We also think it will be very valuable as students start to arrive back at university or college. So if you’re a student about to go to college or Uni make sure you download the app because it will help with you having a bit of normality about how you go about your daily lives and if you have relatives that are about to start college or Uni, make sure you remind them to go on and download it.

Also, one of the crucially things about it is helps reduce the time it takes to notify contacts. If you think about it, a manual contact tracing system is excellent and it’s doing a great job but by definition the time taken to phone someone, taking the details from them and then contact those people, takes a bit of time.

By contrast, the app provides contacts with almost immediate notification which will then be supplemented by advice as necessary from the Test and Protect team.

So for all of these reasons that I really want to stress, this app is a really important way in which all of us can support Test and Protect in the efforts that they are making but also a really important way for all of us to keep our communities safe and I know Nicola will talk more about this shortly. But in the face of COVID, we can all feel a bit, you know, powerless right now but this is a way of us doing something positive that helps in that collective effort.

Let me just stress again, because I know there are some people that understandably have concerns about any technology. This app has been designed with privacy absolutely in mind. It is anonymous and confidential, as I said a moment ago, it does not track your movements, it doesn’t know where you are or track your location, apart from the most minimal of data it needs to work. It doesn’t collect or pass on data.

Your data won’t be past to the DWP or HMRC or anybody else and someone like me can’t go and look anything about you because it doesn’t identify you personally at all.

So it’s a really good innovation and a good enhancement of this vital Test and Protect system that as we go into winter becomes ever more important. And I’ll come back to the simple facts I started with.

The sign up rate we saw yesterday and overnight and into today is excellent, probably beyond our initial expectations but we’ve got to keep that going, we’ve got to keep the numbers growing because the more of us who download and use it, the more effective this app will be and a more effective Test & Protect will be overall in helping us to tackle COVID.

So I would encourage you to visit protect.scot and download the app today – and spread the word to all your friends and family as well.

It is a simple thing we can do but it’s a really important thing all of us can do as individual citizens to help protect Scotland as a whole.

The second issue I want to highlight are the new rules and guidelines that we announced yesterday. In particular, I want to emphasise the new rules on social gatherings.

You know since July, up to eight people from three households have been able to meet indoors. The limits are a bit higher for larger for outdoor gatherings.

These limits no longer apply. A maximum now of six people, from a maximum of two households, will be able to meet together.

Now, I know that that is a really tough restriction. That’s why I want to assure you that the decision we made on this wasn’t taken lightly. At the moment we believe this is necessary to try to limit and restrict as much as we can the transmission of the virus between different households.

To put it bluntly, this virus wants to find new households to infect – that’s pretty much all it cares about – and to survive it has to transmit from person to person and household to household. So in order to push it into retreat as we did over the summer, we have to limit the opportunities for it to spread between households.

Whether this virus thrives or dies, is down to the opportunities we give it or deny it.

So to reduce transmission, and also to simplify the rules, this new limit will apply indoors – in houses, in pubs and restaurants – and also outdoors, including in private gardens.

There will be some limited exceptions – for example for organised sports and places of worship.

I also outlined yesterday an exception to allow up to 20 people to attend funeral wakes or wedding and civil partnership receptions.

And any children under 12, who are part of two households meeting up, don’t count towards the limit of six people.

Now, our initial decision for the reasons I’ve talked about, trying to limit that spread between households, is that children under 12 do count towards the household number – so children from several different households can’t gather altogether in your home.

However, I have asked for some additional expert advice to see if in some circumstances we could exempt children from the two households rule as well.

For example, children’s birthday parties could go ahead, even on a limited basis, as long as adults complied with the limit. We will clarify this over the next few days. Hopefully in the early part of next week.

And that indicates that we don’t want these rules to be applied any more severely than they have to be but we have to make sure that they are applied stringently enough in order to have the desired effect. That’s why some decisions are quite difficult and we need to think quite carefully about them.

The basic rule though, to remind people, is that in any setting, indoors or outdoors for now, you should not meet in groups of more than six people from a maximum of two households.

The regulations that will give legal effect to the new measures will come into force on Monday, and more detail will be available on our website.

But I would encourage people to start sticking to them now, rather than waiting for them to take legal effect on Monday.

And of course, for now, for people living in Glasgow, East or West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire, the advice is not to visit other people’s households at all.

Now, I know all this can be really hard to understand – as you might have heard me saying at one of the briefings earlier in the week, at the early stage of this pandemic, we were just saying to all of you, just stay at home, that’s quite easy for people to understand, very hard to abide by, but easy to understand. It’s a bit more difficult now and I really get that.

We’re trying to simplify the rules as much as possible – but the point I want to just briefly touch on right now is that the fact that I know sometimes, these rules right now seem to be inconsistent.

One of the young people in my own life messaged me this morning to ask, pretty forcefully, why she can be with her friends at school all day today she can’t be with her friends after school later on.

And to be fair, that’s not an unreasonable question.

The basic answer is this – we are having to restrict interactions in the population generally to try to keep the virus at a low enough level to keep schools open, because we know being at school is so important for young people, educationally and socially.

So what can sometimes appear to be inconsistencies are actually the essential trade-offs that we need to make to avoid going back into lockdown more completely and to avoid, if at all possible, of having to close schools again.

So I know this can be difficult to understand but I would ask you, or seek to give you an assurance, that we do think carefully about all of this and while it can sometimes be difficult to fathom it, there is a rational behind the decisions that we are taking.

Now yesterday of course, we also decided to implement two additional measures to reduce the risk of transmission in the hospitality sector. Again, these will take effect legally from Monday but there’s no reason why people shouldn’t start to abide by these straight away.

Firstly, it will become mandatory for customers in hospitality premises to wear face coverings when they are not eating or drinking – for example when they enter the premises and go to their table, or when they leave the table to go to the bathroom.

And second it is already recommended in guidance that staff working in hospitality premises should wear face coverings. From Monday, that advice – subject to some exemptions, the same exemptions that apply to face coverings elsewhere – will become law.

The hospitality sector has put a lot of effort into making it safe for people to go out and meet up, and I am very grateful to them for that. These additional protections are all about helping to ensure the sector can remain open because that matters for the large numbers of people that of course who work within it as well as the people who enjoy the services that it provides.

The final point I want to make before handing over to Nicola, is that the changes that I announced yesterday I know are really unwelcome.

I did not want to announce them, and I’m sure that none of you wanted to hear them.

But in our judgement, imposing more restrictions now on how people can meet up, is necessary to avoid a stricter lockdown later.

Over the last month and a half, the average number of cases recorded in Scotland each day has been more than trebling every three weeks. That is not sustainable if we are to keep schools and businesses safely open.

So we have to act now in order to try to stem that increase and avoid more restrictive measures becoming necessary later. The other point that I made yesterday I want to stress today. This is all really frustrating and tiresome for everyone.

But on the upside we are in a stronger position now that we were back on March. Cases are not rising as quickly and that is partly because now, we have Test and Protect operating and people are much more used to having to do all the basic things to try to limit the spread of the virus.

So we’re in a stronger position but we must protect the progress we’ve made and try to stop the virus running out of control again particularly because we’ve always known going into winter with colder temperatures and damper conditions are likely to see this virus spread again more quickly so please stick to the new rules – of six people, and two households – and don’t wait until Monday, do that now.

And always remember the other measures that will minimise the risk of you passing the virus on to other people.

The simplest way of trying to remember all of that is FACTS.

These are the rules that all of us if we follow them will help keep transmission as low as possible, so

• Face coverings should be worn in enclosed spaces
• Avoid crowded places.
• Clean your hands and hard surfaces regularly.
• keep to Two metre distancing. • and Self isolate, and book a test, if you have symptoms.

I spoke earlier about downloading the Protect Scotland app, as a really simple but powerful thing we can help our communities. It is, and I would encourage you to do that.

But so is sticking to the five rules in FACTS.

The basic point that was true back in March that I think motivated all of us through really dark, difficult times, remains just as true today.

While our experiences are all different, I know that, but fundamentally we’re all in this together.

And fundamentally, it’s only together can we save lives and beat this virus.

So please, continue to play your part by doing all the things we ask.

Download the app and comply with the FACTS guidance.


Thank you to everybody for doing that and please continue to spread the word.

Sturgeon sets Scotland’s own Rule of Six

Maximum gathering set at six people from two households

Indoor and outdoor gatherings revised to keep virus under control

The number of people who can gather together, indoors or outdoors, will be set at maximum of six from two households.

Moves announced yesterday by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will be enforced from Monday (14 September), but people are urged to ‘abide by these stricter new limits immediately.’

Children under 12 from within the two households will not be counted in the new limit of six people.

The restrictions do not apply where there is other sector specific guidance in force, for example for gyms, for childcare or for organised sports, and there will be some other limited exceptions for larger households, education, and places of worship. It does apply to hospitality.

Along with these new measures, the First Minister also confirmed that Scotland will not move out of Phase 3.

As a result of a rise in coronavirus (COVID-19) infections, route map changes that had been given a conditional, indicative start date of Monday (14 September) – conditional on progress against the epidemic – have now been given the new indicative date of Monday 5 October.

A final decision will be taken nearer the time on confirming this new indicative date.

The measures announced yesterday are:

group gatherings will only be allowed to a maximum of six people from two households in both indoor and outdoor settings, with limited exemptions (becoming law from Monday 14 September)
face coverings must be worn in hospitality settings, apart from during the service of food and drink, with hospitality staff following the similar rules as retail staff (from Monday 14 September)
up to 20 people will still be able to attend funerals, weddings and civil partnerships ceremonies, with the limit permitted for wakes and receptions rising to 20 in line with this, as long as they take place in regulated venues like hotels with strict guidance in place (from Monday 14 September)
route map moves expected from Monday (14 September) are given a new indicative date of Monday 5 October

The First Minister said: “I am asking people to abide by these stricter new limits on gatherings immediately.

“In recent weeks, we have reopened significant parts of our economy. People are meeting up more, going out more, and travelling more. All of that is positive.

“But as we released ourselves from lockdown, we also released the virus. Rather than the threat to public health receding, the pandemic is accelerating again – albeit, and thankfully, from a low base and not as rapidly.

“The hospitality industry has put a lot of effort into creating safe spaces for people to meet. We hope that reducing the risk of transmission in hospitality settings through the use of face coverings and reducing group numbers will help keep the sector open.

“Unfortunately, the route map changes that had been given an indicative date of Monday, conditional on the progress of the epidemic, must be paused for a further three weeks. I must stress this remains an indicative date and a final decision can only be taken nearer the time.

“It is important we don’t lose sight of the objective to keep infection levels as low as possible. It is not a virus anyone should be relaxed about getting.

“I know that after six long, hard months, we are still asking the public to make a lot of difficult sacrifices. That is unavoidable, given the nature of the challenge we face.

“However, I want to be clear that while we still face a battle to get and keep COVID under control, we are in a stronger position than earlier in the year.”

The new measures do not overrule measures implemented for localised restrictions.

Rule of Six: Johnson acts to prevent second lockdown

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement at the coronavirus press conference yesterday (Wednesday 9 September).

Good afternoon,

Welcome back to Downing Street for an update on coronavirus as we enter autumn and approach winter.

I will first hand over to Chris to take us through the latest data before I set out how we are responding to it.

Thank you Chris. It is clear from that very powerful graphic that we must act.

The most important thing every one of us must do is remember the basics:

First, wash your hands, regularly and for 20 seconds. Don’t get back into old habits, it is so vital.

Second, wear a face covering over your mouth and nose if you are in an enclosed space and in close contact with people you don’t normally meet. I know wearing a face covering feels odd to some people and I understand that. But face coverings do make it harder for the virus to spread – so please, wear one to protect others.

Third, make space. Always stay 2 metres away from people you don’t live with – or 1 metre with extra precautions, like extra ventilation, screens, or face coverings.

Fourth, if you have COVID symptoms, get a test and self-isolate. We are now processing 1.2 million tests a week. To date we have carried out 15.4 million antigen tests – that’s more than any other country in Europe, and more per head than other European countries like Germany and Spain.

We are increasing our testing capacity further to meet rising demand. You can help by only booking a test if you have a fever, a new continuous cough, or you’ve lost your sense of taste or smell – if you don’t have those symptoms and haven’t been asked to book a test, please don’t.

So those are the basics – hands, face, space – and get a test if you have COVID symptoms.

Since the pandemic began, we have asked you to reduce your social contact and limit your interactions with friends and family.

I know that, over time, the rules have become quite complicated and confusing. We have spoken to police officers about what they need for an effective enforcement regime and of course, listened to the feedback from you, the public.

In response, we are simplifying and strengthening the rules – making them easier for you to understand and for the police to enforce.

I should stress that if we are to beat the virus then everyone, at all times, should limit social contact as much as possible and minimise interactions with other households. It is safer to meet outdoors and you should keep your distance from anyone you don’t live with, even if they are close friends or family.

So in England, from Monday, we are introducing the rule of 6. You must not meet socially in groups of more than 6 – and if you do, you will be breaking the law. This will apply in any setting, indoors or outdoors, at home or in the pub.

The ban will be set out in law and it will be enforced by the police – anyone breaking the rules risks being dispersed, fined and possibly arrested.

This single measure replaces both the existing ban on gatherings of more than 30 and the current guidance on allowing 2 households to meet indoors. Now you only need to remember the rule of 6.

There will be some limited exemptions. For example, if a single household or support bubble is larger than 6, they can still gather.

COVID Secure venues like places of worship, gyms, restaurants and hospitality venues can still hold more than 6 people in total. Within those venues however, there must not be individual groups larger than 6, and groups must not mix socially or form larger groups.

Education and work settings are unaffected, COVID Secure weddings and funerals can go ahead, up to a limit of 30 people, and organised sport will still be able to proceed.

As we have found on previous occasions, this rule of 6 will of course throw up difficult cases. For example, two whole households will no longer be able to meet if they would together exceed the limit of 6 people.

I am sorry about that and I wish that we did not have to take this step. But, as your Prime Minister, I must do what is necessary to stop the spread of the virus and to save lives.

We will of course keep the rule of 6 under constant review and only keep it in place as long as it’s necessary.

I also want to see – and the public wants to see – stronger enforcement of the rules which are already in place. So I’ve have tasked the Cabinet with increasing enforcement and I would like to thank the police, as always, and other authorities for the work they are doing to keep us all safe.

In future:

  • Premises and venues where people meet socially will be legally required to request the contact details of a member of every party, record and retain these details for 21 days, and provide them to NHS Test & Trace without delay when required.
  • We will support local authorities to make further and faster use of their powers to close venues that are breaking the rules and pose a risk to public health.
  • Fines will be levied against hospitality venues that fail to ensure their premises remain COVID Secure.
  • We will boost the enforcement capacity of local authorities by introducing COVID Secure Marshalls to help ensure social distancing in town and city centres, and by setting up a register of Environmental Health Officers that local authorities can draw upon for support.
  • We will simplify the Passenger Locator Form needed for travelling to the UK, and take measures to ensure these are completed and checked before departure.
  • Border Force will step up enforcement efforts at the border to ensure arrivals are complying with the quarantine rules.
  • We will also restrict the opening hours of premises, initially in some local areas.

At the present time we must also, I’m afraid, revise plans to pilot larger audiences in venues later this month and review our intention to return audiences to stadiums and conference centres from 1 October. That doesn’t mean we’re going to scrap the programme entirely it just means we are going to review and abridge it, and the Culture Secretary will say more shortly.

Let me be clear – these measures are not a second national lockdown – the whole point of them is to avoid a second national lockdown. By bearing down on social contact and improving enforcement, we can keep schools and businesses open, in the knowledge they are COVID Secure.

I have always said schools and colleges should only ever be shut again as a very, very last resort. As the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser have said, the long term risks to children’s life chances of not going to school are significant and far greater than the health risks of going back to school.

Indeed it’s been fantastic to see so many children back in school this term and I want, once again, to thank all our teachers, and to reassure parents and pupils that schools are safe.

University terms will also begin soon. Opening universities is critical, again, for students’ life chances and, again, the health risks to individuals are low.

Of course, many university students are in the age bracket where we have seen the infection rates rise recently as Chris was just explaining. My message to students is simple. Please, for the sake of your education and your parents’ and your grandparents’ health: wash your hands, cover your face, make space, and don’t socially gather in groups of more than 6, now and when term starts.

Today the Department for Education is publishing updated guidance for universities on how they can operate in a COVID Secure way, including a clear request not to send students home in the event of an outbreak, so as to avoid spreading the virus across the country. I am very grateful to universities for their continued cooperation and planning for the return of students.

The measures I have set out today will help us control the virus but won’t, on their own, be enough to allow a more significant return to normality.

Patrick is going to set out in a moment where we are on vaccines and treatments in a moment, but we are not there yet and there are no guarantees.

So over the summer, we have therefore been working up an alternative plan which could allow life to return closer to normality. And that plan is based on mass testing.

Up to now, we have used testing primarily to identify people who are positive – so we can isolate them from the community and protect high risk groups. And that will continue to be our priority. We are working hard to increase our testing capacity to 500,000 tests a day by the end of October.

But in future, in the near future, we want to start using testing to identify people who are negative – who don’t have coronavirus and who are not infectious – so we can allow them to behave in a more normal way, in the knowledge they cannot infect anyone else with the virus.

And we think, we hope, we believe that new types of test which are simple, quick and scalable will become available. They use swabs or saliva and can turn round results in 90 or even 20 minutes. Crucially, it should be possible to deploy these tests on a far bigger scale than any country has yet achieved – literally millions of tests processed every single day.

That level of testing would allow people to lead more normal lives, without the need for social distancing:

Theatres and sports venues could test all audience members on the day and let in those with a negative result, all those who are not infectious. Workplaces could be opened up to all those who test negative that morning and allow them to behave in a way that was normal before COVID.

Those isolating because they are a contact, or quarantining after travelling abroad, could after a period be tested and released. Now that is an ambitious agenda, but we are going to pilot this approach in Salford from next month, with audiences in indoor and outdoor venues. And then we hope to go nationwide.

There are a number of challenges. We need the technology to work. We need to source the necessary materials to manufacture so many tests. We need to put in place an efficient distribution network. And we need to work through the numerous logistical challenges.

And as I say, we are not there yet, and I should repeat that, as we manage this period of high demand, it is especially important that if individuals don’t have symptoms, and have not been specifically advised to take a test, they should not be coming forward for a test – because they could be taking a test away from someone who really needs it.

Our plan – this moonshot that I am describing – will require a giant, collaborative effort from government, business, public health professionals, scientists, logistics experts and many, many more.

Work is underway – and we will get on at pace until we get there, round the clock.

We are hopeful this approach will be widespread by the spring and, if everything comes together, it may be possible even for challenging sectors like theatres to have life much closer to normal before Christmas.

But as I have said before, all this progress is contingent on continued scientific advances and though we’re hopeful, I cannot 100% guarantee that those advances will be made.

That is why it is so important that we take these tough measures now.

I believe we will continue to drive this virus down and that we will beat this virus before too long.

So let’s work together and follow the rules: meet in groups of no more than six. Wash your hands, cover your face, and make space.

I will now hand over to Patrick to set out the latest on vaccines and treatments, and then we’ll go to questions from the public and the media.