Covid 19 - What you need to know - Scotland - the route out of lockdown

Both the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly have now published documents outlining how the countries will transition out of lockdown.

In the Scottish document, which can be read in full here, they summarise their approach under six headings:

• Suppress the virus through compliance with physical distancing and hygiene measures, ensuring that the reproduction number remains below 1 and that our NHS remains within capacity.
• Care for those who need it, whether infected by the virus or not.
• Support people, business and organisations affected by the crisis.
• Recover to a new normal, carefully easing restrictions when safe to do so while maintaining necessary measures and ensuring that transmission remains controlled, supported by developments in medicine and technology.
• Protect against this and future pandemics, including through effective testing, contact tracing and isolation.
• Renew our country, building a fairer and more sustainable economy and society.

Again, in common with Wales, an evidenced based approach is promoted.

In here foreword First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says:

“The path before us is through uncharted territory and will need careful navigation. Our guiding values should be kindness, compassion, openness and transparency.

While we hope that scientific advances, such as treatments and a vaccine, will provide solutions in the longer term, in the more immediate future we will need to learn to live with this virus, possibly for some time to come. Our challenge therefore is to work out if and how we can continue to suppress it and minimise its harms, while restoring some semblance of normality to our everyday lives. We will always take a careful approach that seeks to protect life and reduce harm.

These decisions will not be easy. The challenge and necessary change that lie ahead of us will require us to adapt how we live our lives. That will require a concerted effort from all parts of Scottish society. Individual and collective responsibility will be needed to keep our country safe and we will need to draw on the collective ingenuity, innovation, creativity and perseverance that Scotland’s people have at their core.

Everyone in Scotland has a part to play.”