Scotland will be placed in a full lockdown from midnight on Monday for the duration of January to avoid the coronavirus pandemic spiralling out of control, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
The first minister said in an emergency statement to Holyrood that all Scotland’s schools would remain closed for the whole of January, shifting to online learning, because of the risks posed by the new Covid variant, B117.
The new “stay at home” rules, mirroring the very strict controls imposed last March, will also be legally enforced and greatly restrict who is able to travel, the Scottish government’s cabinet agreed earlier on Monday.
While Scotland has not experienced the sharp escalation in the number of Covid patients in hospital seen in parts of England, over the last week, the number of positive cases has risen to new records every day, hitting 2,464 on Sunday.
