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Nicola Sturgeon has tightened COVID restrictions in Scotland, setting out six changes that will take effect on Saturday.
Subject to approval by the Scottish Parliament, the rules are:
• Click-and-collect services are limited to essential purchases such as clothing, baby supplies, and books.
• Customers can no longer pick up takeout from inside restaurants – food must be delivered through a hatch or entrance.
• Now against the law to drink alcohol outdoors in public in all Level 4 areas
• Legal Guidance on Work from Home – Anyone who worked from home during the first shutdown must do so again.
• Working within homes is now limited to essential home maintenance, maintenance or operation, by law
• Scots can only leave home for essential purposes, and cannot stay away for other purposes afterwards
People collect packages from a Next in Glasgow
It comes as new figures show 7,074 people have died in Scotland with confirmed or suspected coronavirus since the pandemic began.
The Scottish Prime Minister said: “Don’t think in terms of the maximum interactions you can have without breaking the rules.
“Instead, think about how to minimize your interactions to the essentials to eliminate as many opportunities as possible for the virus to spread.
“In everything you do, assume that the virus is with you, that you or anyone you are in contact with has it, and act in a way that prevents it from passing between you.
“All of this means staying home except for really essential purposes, including working from home whenever possible.
A shopper walks past a sign that reads “Virus Control Zone” on a fence in Edinburgh
“Except for essential purposes, do not have people from other households in your home and do not enter theirs.”
While the list of essential reasons for leaving home will not change, Sturgeon said: “It does mean that if the police challenge you for being out of the house doing something that is not essential, it will not be a defense to tell you initially left the house to do something that was essential. “
Between January 4 and 10, 384 deaths were registered that mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, 197 more than the previous week.
These figures differ from laboratory confirmed coronavirus deaths announced daily by the Scottish government because the Scottish National Registers figures include suspected or probable cases of coronavirus.
Sturgeon said there are indications that the lockdown may be working, but that “there was no room for complacency.”
Following the tightening of click-and-pick services, Tracy Black, head of CBI Scotland, said such services were “a lifeline for many companies, particularly smaller companies” and that the new restrictions could lead to the collapse of some companies.
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The PM promise of 24 hours jabs
“It is really important that the Scottish Government present strong evidence that these services are a source of transmission and provide additional and urgent support to compensate for what would be a further loss of revenue in increasingly challenging times,” he said.
Scotland was blockaded on January 5 and people were only allowed to leave their homes for essential purposes.
All schools have switched to distance learning for the entire month of January, except for vulnerable children and key workers.
Sky’s political correspondent Kate McCann said there are now “big questions about what might happen next in England.”
“What we are seeing clearly is that Nicola Sturgeon feels that now is the right time to introduce some additional measures,” he said.
“It’s interesting that it’s the same things that have been discussed by the media in England this week, which are things that are being talked about behind the scenes at Westminster, like the possibility of changing the rules about clicking and picking, how to avoid let people come in to get takeout. “
