Coronavirus: Visiting restrictions reintroduced in the Glasgow area

Restrictions on visiting other homes are being reintroduced in the Glasgow area after an increase in coronavirus cases.

Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the move after 66 new positive tests were recorded in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

The restrictions will apply to people living in Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.

They will be in place for two weeks, but will be checked after one week.

The restrictions are estimated to affect more than 800,000 people: 633,120 in Glasgow, 95,530 in East Renfrewshire and 88,930 in West Dunbartonshire.

Sturgeon said that transmission of the virus in affected areas appeared to be occurring primarily within people’s homes and between households.

As a result, people in the three council areas should not house people from other households within their homes or visit someone else’s home.

The daily incidence rate of Covid-19 is now almost 33 new cases per 100,000 people in West Dunbartonshire, 22 in Glasgow and almost 19 in East Renfrewshire. The rate for the rest of Scotland is just over 10.

The local lockdown that was imposed in Aberdeen last month had been caused by a rate of 14 cases per 100,000 residents.

The prime minister had previously expressed concern after the latest figures showed that 66 of the 154 new cases recorded in Scotland had occurred in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

There had been an average of eight cases per day in the same area during the first two weeks of August.