Nicola Sturgeon imposes full 'stay at home' lockdown in Scotland – with swipe at Boris Johnson

Scotland's mainland is to return to full lockdown for at least the rest of January after Nicola Sturgeon warned schools must stay shut and people at home if a "race" against the mutant Covid strain is to be won.

The First Minister said the shutdown - "similar" to the one imposed last March - followed a massive surge in cases linked to the new variant that threatened to overwhelm the NHS within four weeks.

From Tuesday, only two Scots from two households can meet outside, with the limit not including children under 12, and people are only allowed to leave their homes for a limited range of reasons such as food shopping.

Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, of Police Scotland, said his officers will increase their patrols and "visible presence" in Scotland's communities. He added: "Where officers encounter wilful breaches, they will act decisively to enforce the law."

Ms Sturgeon said people who are shielding must not return to their workplace after the festive holiday, and ordered all employees to work from home if possible. She also shut places of worship from Friday.

Children's return to school after the festive break has been delayed a second time, from Jan 18 to Feb 1, but Ms Sturgeon said she could not rule out keeping Scotland in lockdown for longer.

Speaking as the roll-out of the Oxford vaccine started, she said that Scotland was now in a "race" between vaccination and the new variant of the virus. However, she said the latter meant Covid "has just learned to run much faster."

The First Minister said her current assumption was that by early May everyone over 50, and younger people with specific underlying health conditions, will have received at least their first of two vaccine doses.

In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Ms Sturgeon said: "To ensure that the vaccine wins the race, it is essential to speed up vaccination as far as possible.

"But to give it the time it needs to get ahead, we must also slow the virus down. And because it is now spreading faster, that means even tougher restrictions are necessary."

Although Boris Johnson unveiled a similar lockdown for England, with schools there shut until at least the February half-term, she sniped at him for acting too slowly to quash a much larger surge in cases in London and the south-east of England.

She said that Scotland was around four weeks behind the position in the UK capital, where 27 per cent of tests came back positive, but there was a chance to "avert the situation here deteriorating to that extent."

Holyrood's opposition parties offered broad support for the measures, but expressed concerns that working parents would again be forced to juggle their jobs with the "inconsistent" standard of online learning provided by schools.

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tories' Holyrood leader, said SNP "complacency" over improving online learning since the first lockdown meant pupils are facing a "fractured education" that threatens to hinder their progress.

Business leaders warned few of the flurry of support schemes unveiled by SNP ministers at the end of last year "have paid out a penny" and demanded urgent action to prevent more firms going bust.

A further 1,905 new Covid cases were reported in Scotland on Monday, with 15 per cent of tests returning a positive result, a level Ms Sturgeon said "illustrates the severity and urgency of the situation".

In the week to Dec 30, the seven-day incidence of cases rose by 65 per cent from 136 per 100,000 people to 225.

The First Minister said the number of Covid patients in hospital was close to the April peak and, although the number of people in intensive care is "significantly lower", this reflected the level of new cases around a fortnight ago.

If the rate of increase in cases over the past two weeks was to continue, she said there was "a real risk of our NHS being overwhelmed - even with contingency plans in place."

"In fact, our modelling suggests that without further intervention, we could breach inpatient Covid capacity within three or four weeks," she added.

The new rules, written into law, mean Scots are only allowed to leave home for essential purposes, such as essential shopping, exercise and caring responsibilities.

There is no limit on how many times people can go out to exercise, but outdoor meetings must adhere to a maximum of two people from two households.

Ms Sturgeon said community transmission of the virus must be brought to a lower level for schools to reopen amid concerns that the new variant of the virus spreads more easily among young people.

The Feb 1 reopening date will be reviewed in mid-January, she said, with a "cautious approach" adopted until more research is published of the impact of the new strain on children.

However, she said primary schools could reopen sooner than secondaries as younger children are less affected by the virus. She also said teachers could be moved up the vaccination priority list.

From Friday, places of worship will close except for broadcasting a service, or conducting a funeral, marriage or civil partnership ceremony.

The number of people who can attend weddings will reduce to five, and funeral wakes will be banned.

Scotland's islands remain in level three of Ms Sturgeon's five-tier system, meaning non-essential shops and some hospitality can stay open, but she said they would be monitored carefully and their schools would also remain shut.

Some more business premises have been forced to close, including showrooms and ski centres. Dr Gregor Smith, Scotland's chief medical officer, is writing to all those shielding recommending that they not go into work.

Andrew McRae, the Federation of Small Businesses' Scotland policy chair, said: "Help for Scottish business can no longer be a dollar short and a day late.

"For a start, the glut of new support schemes announced at the end of last year need to start delivering cash to firms. So far, few of these initiatives have paid out a penny."

Tracy Black, CBI Scotland director, said the lockdown was a "severe setback" for companies trying to "claw back losses from 2020" and warned there was "an urgent need for existing financial support to be unlocked."

Joe Crawford, director of the Campaign for Real Ale in Scotland, said it was "clear that the existing financial support on offer won’t be enough to save our pubs and breweries from permanent closure."