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Eleven council areas in Scotland with the most stringent level 4 coronavirus restrictions will drop one notch from Friday, with key exams canceled for 2021.
Education Secretary John Swinney told Holyrood that next year’s upper and upper courses had been canceled, adding that students had already “lost significant learning time.”
His statement came shortly after Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that many areas of Scotland would change levels following a review of lockdown restrictions.
Those changes will allow non-essential commerce and hospitality, such as cafes, restaurants, shops and hair salons, to reopen two weeks before Christmas.
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The areas to be placed on Level 3 later this week are East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian.
Non-essential stores will be able to reopen starting at 6 a.m. M. From Friday. The rest of the changes will take effect from 6 pm that day.
Hospitality businesses on Level 3 must close their doors by 6pm, which means that the new areas on Level 3 will have to wait until Saturday to welcome food and non-alcoholic beverages customers.
In total, restrictions will be lowered to 16 areas in Scotland, while another 16 will remain at the same level they are currently at.
Inverclyde, Falkirk, and Angus will go from Tier 3 to Tier 2, and Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders will go from Tier 2 to Tier 1.
Swinney said students had missed teaching time at the end of the last academic year, when schools were still closed.
He added: “That has now been compounded by the disruption that many have suffered as they were forced to isolate themselves, had to learn from home or even saw their school closed.
“There is no way around the fact that a significant percentage of our poorest students have lost significantly more instructional time than other students.”
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Ms Sturgeon said that she had considered moving Edinburgh from Level 3 to Level 2, but the approach of the Christmas period had overturned that decision.
However, the position will be reassessed next week.
Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire will remain on Level 2, with coronavirus cases that have dropped in the last week.
Sturgeon said: “In making decisions today, we have had to consider the potential overall impact of moving to a lower level of restrictions at the same time as the Christmas period begins in earnest.
“That has led us to a proportionate but still cautious set of conclusions.”
Current travel restrictions through Scotland will remain in place, and the prime minister said that these “continue to be a vital part of maintaining the security of the country with a targeted and proportionate approach to restrictions.”
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She said: “No one in a Level 3 area, or until Friday in a Level 4 area, should travel outside of their area of local authority, except for very specific purposes.
“And no one should travel to level 3 or 4 areas unless it is for essential purposes.
“I’m afraid that means, for example, that people outside of Glasgow should not travel there to do Christmas shopping when the retail store opens on Friday.”
How people have the Pfizer / BioNTech jab for the first time today outside of clinical trials, Ms Sturgeon said the vaccination program presents the “beginning of the end” of the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.
She said: “Today, the day the first people have been vaccinated against COVID, is a day of optimism for all of us.
“But it marks, we hope, the beginning of the end of the pandemic. The end is not yet between us.
“So we all need to keep thinking about how we keep ourselves and others safe in the meantime.”
