Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced that Scotland’s Covid-19 lockdown will be extended, adding that it would be “catastrophic” to deviate from the strategy of telling citizens to remain at home.
Prime minister Boris Johnson is due to address the nation on Sunday to present his "roadmap" out of the UK lockdown, and there is speculation that the government could abandon the official advice of telling people to remain at home and some measures could be eased from Monday.
However, Sturgeon has been clear about her view that scrapping the message to remain at home would be ill-advised and “a potentially catastrophic mistake”.
She said that after assessing scientific evidence, she was lead to the conclusion that “the lockdown must be extended at this stage".
She hinted, however, that the Scottish government may relax some measures, such as allowing people to spend more time outside of their homes for daily exercise, should scientific evidence support it.
Despite expressing a preference for the UK to implement changes to lockdown restrictions in unison, Sturgeon said it is possible to go in “different ways” should all four nations find themselves at different stages.
Sturgeon said: "If the prime minister wants to move at a faster pace for England, that is his right.
"But I hope you understand and agree that I must make judgements, informed by the evidence, that are right and safe for Scotland.
"I will not be pressurised into lifting restrictions prematurely until I am as certain as I can be that we will not be risking a resurgence in infection rates."
She added: "Extreme caution is required at this critical juncture to avoid a rapid resurgence of the virus. It is not an exaggeration to say decisions now are a matter of life and death.
"That is why they weigh so very, very heavily and why they must be taken with great care, and it is why as I take them I will continue to err on the side of caution."
The Scottish government has already published its own range of options to begin easing lockdown restrictions, but did not specify when they may be triggered.
However, Sturgeon stressed that any easing of restrictions "would not change the overall message" that people should remain at home and avoid socialising with members of different households.
She added: "The other possible changes that are reported in the media, such as encouraging more people back to work now, opening beer gardens, or encouraging more use of public transport, would not in my judgement be safe for us to make yet.
"What I do not want a few weeks from now is for us to see a resurgence of this virus, and for you to be asking me 'why on Earth did you start to ease lockdown a week or a couple of weeks too early'?."
