Covid-19 prevalence in Scotland still too high to accelerate easing of lockdown, Government warns

Covid-19 prevalence is still too high to consider speeding up the easing of lockdown, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said, despite Scotland recording a coronavirus test positivity rate below the marker set by the World Health Organization for the pandemic to be “under control” for the fourth day in a row.

Scotland recorded a positivity rate of 3.3 per cent on Friday - the third day in a row it has been below 4 per cent and the fourth day below 5 per cent, which is the WHO marker.

The number of people being treated in hospital also fell to its lowest number since October 21, but Ms Freeman warned that the data does not mean Scotland can move quicker than planned out of lockdown.

In Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial road map out of lockdown announced on Tuesday, the “stay at home” order will not be lifted until April 5 at the earliest.

Any changes to restrictions will be made at minimum intervals of three weeks, with Scotland then returning to the regional “tiers” approach in the last week of April.

Speaking at the Government’s coronavirus briefing on Friday, Ms Freeman said that there will not be an acceleration of the first part of the plan despite the positive figures.

"The three-week period is really important," she said. "We didn't pick three weeks randomly out of the air, we went on the basis of clinical advice that said you need to give it a reasonable period of time to be sure that progress isn't just being made but is being sustained.

"Now of course, if we see even better reduction in case numbers and case positivity... then as we move out of lockdown into stages then we may be able to move faster, but at this point our head room is really limited in terms of how well we have together brought cases down.

"We've done it very well, but not yet far enough to go further than was set out by the First Minister earlier this week."

National clinical director Professor Jason Leitch echoed the tone of caution, warning that perspective should be applied to the figures.

"If you think back to last summer, these numbers were much, much lower when we were beginning to get to very low numbers."

Prevalence of the virus has “stuck”, he said, at around 100 per 100,000 of the population compared with 1.1 in July.

Ms Freeman also confirmed that people aged over 40 in Scotland will be the next to be prioritised for a Covid-19 vaccine, and that the Government will follow Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice on the next stage of the vaccination programme.

Under phase two of the programme, those aged between 40 and 49 will be prioritised for a jab, followed by those aged 30-39 and then 18-29 year olds.

However, the decision was met with fury by policing and teaching unions, who claim that their members are more at risk due to the nature of their work and should be prioritised for a jab.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) is urging the Scottish Government to use its devolved powers to prioritise the vaccination of teachers, as it did with care home staff.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Police Federation has described the JCVI guidance as “extremely disappointing” and said that there has been “no practical consideration” of the risks that officers face.

Responding to the calls, Ms Freeman said that singling out occupations for vaccination would take too long and age is a better signifier of risk from Covid-19.

However, the Scottish Police Federation has described the argument that prioritising vaccination for police officers would delay the programme as “misguided”.

“The police are a 24/7/365 emergency service that is used to providing agile and fast responses,” said David Hamilton, chair of the federation. “If asked, we could provide 17,000 arms across the country tomorrow.”