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Four people from two households will be able to meet outdoors in Scotland starting Friday, Nicola Sturgeon announced.
Speaking to the Scottish Parliament, the prime minister said the next step in easing Scotland’s blockade would now come three days ahead of schedule.
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Ms. Sturgeon had previously aimed to relax the rules on outdoor mixing on March 15, but has now sped up that schedule by noting that meeting outdoors “can be enormously beneficial to our well-being.”
Two-household four-party gatherings will be allowed to take place locally in any outdoor space, including private gardens, while individuals should only enter indoors if reaching a backyard garden or going to the bathroom is essential.
The prime minister also announced:
• Non-contact outdoor sports and group exercise will also resume for adults in groups of up to 15 people starting Friday.
• Youth ages 12-17 will be able to meet outdoors in groups of up to four people from four different households.
• Travel restrictions will be relaxed slightly for youth who play sports when their club may be “a little out” of the council area.
• Community worship in Scotland will restart from March 26, with a limit of 50 people in services, should progress on suppressing COVID-19 continue. A final decision will be made on March 23 before Passover, Passover, Ramadan and Vaisakhi.
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‘Minor changes’ to Scottish lockdown rules
Sturgeon told MSPs that the “significant” drop in new cases in recent weeks, coupled with the decline in the number of deaths and hospital admissions, had provided “strong reasons for hope.”
He said the changes to the restrictions were “modest” but “important,” adding: “I hope they help people’s health and well-being by allowing group exercise and allowing a little more social interaction.
“I also hope they allow the children to see their friends more and exercise and play a little more normally.
“And they should provide some comfort to religious groups.”
The prime minister also expected a “very significant acceleration” in Scotland’s COVID vaccination program from the middle of this month as supplies increase.
Nearly 40% of Scotland’s adult population have received a first dose of vaccine, Sturgeon said, and people between the ages of 50 and 59 are now invited to receive a vaccine.
He added that there was “greater confidence that as more and more people gain some protection through vaccination, we will be able to ease restrictions while still keeping the R number below 1.”
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But Sturgeon cautioned that he “could not afford to take his foot off the brake too soon,” as he revealed how a possible additional, albeit unconfirmed, case of the P1 variant of the coronavirus, which was first found, had been identified in Scotland. time in Brazil.
“It is about an individual who traveled to Scotland from Rio de Janeiro, via Paris, and arrived on February 19,” he said.
“The individual followed all procedures for managed self-isolation, and we currently have no reason to believe that this case presents any risk to the community at large.
“However, of course, we will continue to do all the necessary follow-up work.”
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The celebrations continue after the Rangers’ title win
The prime minister also expressed her “anger and despair” at soccer fans who “flagrantly violated” coronavirus restrictions over the weekend, following the Rangers’ league title win.
“I don’t really care about the color of the jersey, my comments on these issues are non-partisan,” he said.
“I said some harsh things about Celtic’s decisions earlier this year.
“And as far as I’m concerned in this case, Rangers Football Club could have done more to help prevent this situation from arising over the weekend.
“The fact is that elite sport is being allowed to continue now so that fans, deprived like all of us of so many other things in life right now, can continue to watch and support their teams.
“It would be deeply unfair if a minority spoiled that for the majority, and I hope they don’t.
“But given the fragility of the situation we are facing right now, we cannot just turn a blind eye to what happened over the weekend and we will not.”
Sturgeon added that the Scottish government will hold talks with football authorities and clubs this week and will report ahead of the Celtic-Rangers game on March 21.
