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Scotland’s national clinical director has said a lockdown would help Scotland “buy time” before winter.
The Scottish cabinet will meet later to discuss the possible reintroduction of stricter restrictions to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Some government advisers have endorsed the idea of a “circuit breaker” lockout as a “short sharp jolt.”
Nicola Sturgeon has suggested that more measures could be implemented “in the near future”.
Another 697 cases of the virus were confirmed Monday. The number of people receiving treatment in the hospital is also increasing.
There are currently 218 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, 22 of them in intensive care.
The prime minister said Monday that it was “vital that we do everything possible” to curb the virus and that “failure to act costs lives.”
- Can a ‘circuit break’ stop the second wave of Covid?
National Clinical Director Jason Leitch told Scotland’s BBC that a “circuit breaker” lockout could delay the course of the pandemic by 28 days and “buy time” before winter.
However, Sturgeon stressed that the term circuit breaker could mean “several things,” and said he would notify the public and parliament “as far in advance as possible” of any changes.
What would a circuit breaker look like?
The Scottish government has not indicated what kind of additional restrictions could be introduced.
However, Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said it was possible to look to other countries to see what measures they had recently introduced to try to stop the rise in new coronavirus cases.
Paris announced Monday that it would close all bars after the French government raised the city’s coronavirus alert to maximum after a period of high infection rates.
Bars, gyms and swimming pools in the city will be closed for two weeks in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus.
“We want to reduce the family mix, in other words meet other people on the inside,” Ms Bauld told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland program.
“So let’s think about the fact that we can’t do that in Scotland in terms of going to someone else’s house, that’s already in place. So what else could the government do to reduce that?”
“That would mean, unfortunately, temporarily closing the hospitality venues [and] maybe other places where they have Test and Protect data make things riskier. “
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Blocking a circuit breaker could include the closure of hospitality venues and travel restrictions
The professor said the Scottish government is likely also considering restricting the movement of people, whether they enter the country or around the country.
She told BBC Scotland that the purpose of the switch would be to “buy time”.
“It is trying to reduce the transmission rates, the transmission speed,” he said.
“We can see the numbers go up … what we are trying to achieve there is to stop the growth of the pandemic curve, buy time to do other things and improve your ability to respond to it, particularly as we move forward. winter “.
Ms Bauld added that it would take two to three weeks for any kind of blackout period to have an effect, but it should be balanced by the “incredible damage” it did to the economy and people’s mental health.
