Nicola Sturgeon to confirm Christmas closure rules after request to help Scots avoid a lonely holiday season

The Scots will learn if the rules will be relaxed for the holiday season as early as next week, Nicola Sturgeon revealed.

The Prime Minister was pressured to make plans to help families make plans and help people anxious to feel lonely on Christmas Day.

Sturgeon met yesterday with UK government figures and the prime ministers of Wales and Northern Ireland to come up with a plan, assuming COVID is rejected with new restrictions.

At Holyrood, Sturgeon said today: “We discussed the Christmas period and how we can come up with a sensible plan, and I emphasize sensible and sure that it will allow people not 100% normalcy, but a greater degree of normality and, in particular, the ability to spend time with loved ones. “

Now a “concrete proposal” is in the works, Sturgeon said.

“I hope we can share that with the public over the course of the next week. We are all determined, if possible, to reach a four-nation agreement, given the familiar patterns across the UK.”

Yesterday, Sturgeon hinted at a Christmas “bauble” plan: a pun on the “bubbles” that households can form during lockdown.

Scottish Tory MSP Ruth Davidson had demanded a “solitude plan.”

Sturgeon said older people at risk of being alone are central to the government’s plans.

Davidson called for a quick response to keep the public informed. She said: “I am pleased with the reports of a four-nation decision, but Christmas is only five weeks away.”

Scotland recorded 50 more deaths from coronavirus and 1,089 positive tests in the past 24 hours, Sturgeon confirmed also today.

He said the infection rate, known as the R number, is now well below 1, suggesting the restrictions are working and the spread is slowing.

But there are regional variations the government is addressing by putting some parts of the country on level four restrictions on Friday.

The 11 affected areas are the City of Glasgow, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, Stirling and West Lothian.