Covid 19 - What you need to know - First Minister's Statement

The Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has today attempted to set out her own road map to return Scotland to ‘Normality’.

As you may expect, all steps are subject to progress with the vaccine roll out and status of the disease in the country and this note of caution was sounded clearly by the First Minister.

The plan is:

• The stay at home direction will come to an end on 2nd April.
• Hairdressers and garden centres will be permitted to reopen from 5th April.
• Scots will be able to travel throughout Scotland from 26th April, although special measures may remain in place for island communities to prevent the importation of cases.
• Also from 26th April:
• Hospitality in external areas should return allowing up to 6 persons (from 3 households) to consume alcohol (without food) until 10pm.
• Hospitality indoors will remain limited to the consumption of meals, without alcohol, until 8pm.
• Gyms, non-essential retail and tourist accommodation will re-open from 26th April.

The next review of restrictions will follow the 26th April with a hope that further restrictions will be relaxed from 17th May (3 weeks later).

The First Minister expressed her wish to see Scotland return to “normality” by June, subject to continued progress in battling the Covid pandemic.