, 60 tweets, 9 min read
My Authors
Read all threads
First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Thanks for joining us again today. As usual I will take you through the daily Covid statistics, starting with today's positive cases."
NS: "I can report an additional 176 cases were confirmed yesterday. That represents 2.3% of people newly tested yesterday, and it takes the total number of cases now to 21,719."
NS: "As usual the full health board breakdown will be published on the website later on, but I can give you the provisional information I have, which is that 91 of these cases are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 32 in Lanarkshire, 16 in Lothian, 8 in Ayrshire and Arran."
NS: "The remaining 29 cases are spread across the other seven mainland health boards, and it is worth me stressing today that we have positive cases reported today in every mainland health board area."
NS: "I can also confirm that 267 patients are currently in hospital with Covid, that is 11 more than yesterday, and 6 people are in intensive care, which is 1 more than yesterday."
NS: "I'm also very sad to report that in the past 24 hours, 3 deaths have been registered of patients who first tested positive over the previous 28 days, and the total number of deaths under this measurement is now 2,499."
NS: "Today is the first occasion on which 3 deaths have been reported in our daily figures since the 30th June. This reminds us of the impact the virus has had and continues to have, but most of all, of course, that figure speaks of three individual tragedies."
NS: "And I want to send my condolences to those who are grieving as a result of the deaths reported today, and also to everyone who has lost a loved one during this pandemic."
NS: "My remarks are going to focus very much on the announcement @scotgov made last night about the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area."
NS: "I'll then say something about the more general situation. The Scottish Government's resilience committee met late yesterday afternoon to discuss the restrictions that were put in place a week ago today in Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire."
NS: "We considered a report from the incident management team and consulted the representatives of the local authorities affected."
NS: "Having assessed the latest information about new cases, and assessed advice from our senior clinical advisers, the Scottish Government decided yesterday that existing restrictions must remain in place for these three local authority areas."
NS: "We also concluded, on the evidence presented, that the restrictions should also be extended to cover two other local authority areas in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board region."
NS: "Those two additional council areas were Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire - both of these areas recorded a high number of new cases in the past week."
NS: "That means for anyone who lives in these five local authority areas - as a reminder that Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow City, East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire - that the following restrictions will apply for the next week."
NS: "Let me recap what the restrictions that are in place in these areas are. Firstly, if you live in any of these council areas you should not host people from other households in your own home, and you should not visit someone else's home, no matter where that is."
NS: "To use my own example, I live in Glasgow City, I should not have people in my home but nor should I visit my parents who live in Ayrshire - even though Ayrshire is not one of the affected council areas."
NS: "Secondly, if anyone in a household is identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid, then we are advising everyone in that household to self-isolate for 14 days."
NS: "That's different to the normal rules, where only the person who is a contact has to isolate. But our advice is that this extension is essential at this stage to help us break the chains of transmission."
NS: "Finally, visiting in care homes across Greater Glasgow and Clyde is restricted to outdoor visits only, unfortunately, except for essential visits."
NS: "Hospital visiting is for essential purposes only. More details, including information about exceptions to the rules on household meetings, for carers and extended households, can be found on the Scottish Government website."
NS: "I know these rules are really unwelcome. As I've already said, I live in Glasgow so I know how frustrating they are. I, just like all of you watching, don't want them to be in place for any longer than is necessary."
NS: "But, overall, I believe they represent a proportionate, and hopefully effective, but absolutely necessary response to a worrying increase in Covid across these areas."
NS: "The restrictions will be reviewed again next week. They will stay in place for as long as needed but they will not stay in place for any longer than that."
NS: "Yesterday's meeting also discussed the situation in other parts of Scotland such as Inverclyde and North and South Lanarkshire. At the moment the number of new cases in these areas, while rising, does not warrant additional restrictions."
NS: "However, this will be kept under close review. We also discussed the hospitality sector."
NS: "The evidence we have at this stage suggests that house gatherings, which, by their nature, are hard to regulate for things like physical distancing, have made the biggest contribution to the spread of Covid across Greater Glasgow and Clyde."
NS: "They're also a setting in which older and more vulnerable people are often most at risk of infection, because older and more vulnerable people are more likely to socialise at home rather than visit pubs and restaurants."
NS: "As a result, our restrictions focus on meetings in people's houses. However, some transmission, we know, is taking place in pubs and restaurants, so we will also keep that under close review."
NS: "We'll discuss with the five local authorities concerned what further steps we can take to ensure pubs, bars, and restaurants are operating in line with the necessary rules."
NS: "In doing that we'll seek to learn lessons from the work environmental health officers did in Aberdeen before pubs and bars there were able to reopen."
NS: "One point I would stress here is there has always been and remains a responsibility for customers. The rules on indoor meetings still apply in pubs. When you go out there should be no more than 8 people from a maximum of 3 households in any group in a pub or restaurant."
NS: "Different households should physically distance. If you arrive in a bar that is a bit too crowded and where physical distancing is difficult, my advice would be not to stay there. Try to find a venue that is less busy."
NS: "And when you do go out, it's far better to stay in one pub than to visit several. If you spend time in three or four different bars, you're significantly increasing the number of people who could transmit Covid to you."
NS: "And if you have Covid but might not realise it because you don't yet have symptoms, you are significantly increasing the number of people you could infect."
NS: "In addition, if you think about how Test & Protect works, one person visiting several pubs in a night or a week creates a far bigger challenge to them than someone who stays in just one venue."
NS: "Please try to ensure you stay in the same place if at all possible. It really does make a difference to your safety and also to the safety of those around you."
NS: "This is an area that we know is hard to regulate, and we don't want, if we can avoid it, to have to create new rules or laws. But there is clearly a responsibility for individuals here."
NS: "The hospitality sector has reopened, and we want people to support the sector and of course to be able to safely enjoy themselves. But we are still living in a global pandemic."
NS: "That pandemic is now accelerating again across the country, and still accelerating across the world. So you should not be socialising in the same way as you were last year, or the earlier part of this year before the pandemic struck."
NS: "Can I also take the opportunity to remind you again that the international situation remains very volatile too. We see the numbers of cases rising in many countries across Europe and further afield."
NS: "So my advice is that you should still be cautious at this time about non-essential foreign travel."
NS: "The final point that I want to make is that the situation I've outlined today is a sharp reminder for all of us - not just for people in Greater Glasgow and Clyde - but for all of us that Covid unfortunately is spreading again."
NS: "That was always likely to happen when we substantially lifted lockdown, but it means we have to think carefully about whether it is safe or possible to open up further at this stage."
NS: "It's only fair that I signal now that, while final decisions have not yet been taken, when we do our latest three-weekly review on Thursday, we may well not be able to go ahead with any further easing of restrictions at this time."
NS: "Obviously we want to do everything possible to avoid the situation where more restrictions that have been lifted have to be reimposed, and the key to avoiding that rests with all of us."
NS: "The decisions we all make as individuals still affect the safety and wellbeing of our communities, so please do everything you can to avoid creating a bridge for the virus to cross over from one person to another or one household to another."
NS: "If you do that, there's less chance of you getting the virus, less chance of you transmitting the virus, and less chance of you being contacted by Test & Protect and being asked to self-isolate as a contact of someone who has tested positive."
NS: "Before I finish just briefly, let me again, as I tried to do yesterday, take head-on an argument that we hear more frequently just now..."
NS: "..and that argument is that because the virus is, at the moment, infecting more young people than old people, and because we are not yet seeing a sharp rise in serious illness or deaths, we don't need to worry about this."
NS: "That is, in my view, potentially a really dangerous delusion. Firstly, the risk of a young person getting seriously ill or dying is thankfully lower, but it is not zero, and I would ask people of all ages to remember that."
NS: "Second, we are seeing warning signs here already. I have reported three deaths today. That's the first time I've had to do that in more than two months. So we should listen to the warning signals that are already here."
NS: "Thirdly, we don't live in entirely generationally-segregated ways. If transmission becomes established in the young population, it will eventually reach the older, more vulnerable population."
NS: "So, to younger people, please think about your loved ones as well as yourselves, which I know everybody does."
NS: "And to older people, be even more vigilant about hygiene and distancing if you're spending time with young relatives who may have been in pubs and restaurants."
NS: "And to all of us - let's treat the current situation with the seriousness it most certainly merits. Abide by the rules and remember that the simplest way in which all of us can deny the virus the opportunity to spread is by following the FACTS advice."
NS: "These are the five golden rules that all of us must follow to protect ourselves, our families, our communities, to protect the NHS and, ultimately - let's not lose sight of this - save lives. Let me just end with a reminder of these five rules."
NS: "Face coverings should be worn in enclosed spaces.

Avoid crowded places, whether indoor or outdoor.

Clean your hands regularly. Clean hard surfaces as well."
NS: "Two-metre distancing, wherever you can. I know that can be difficult but it remains really vital.

Self-isolate and book a test if you have symptoms of Covid."
NS: "It's not easy for any of us to do all of this but doing all of this helps us individually to contribute to a situation where, collectively, we have the best chance of keeping this virus under control."
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Keep Current with The SNP

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!