Nicola Sturgeon urged to move whole of Scotland to Level 1 Covid restrictions

Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to move all of Scotland down to Level 1 restrictions next week despite barely a fifth of mainland council areas having a low enough Covid rate to meet her threshold for reducing restrictions.

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said "leaving behind whole areas should be ruled out" and targeted interventions, instead of sweeping measures covering a whole city, should be used to tackle local outbreaks.

The First Minister will disclose on Tuesday which areas will move to Level 1 on her planned timetable of June 7 after warning last week that parts of Scotland may stay in Level 2.

Humza Yousaf, the new Scottish health secretary, repeated Ms Sturgeon's warning that reducing restrictions may not be possible in areas where Covid cases are giving "cause for concern".

The Telegraph can disclose that only six of the country's 29 mainland local authorities have a rate below 20 cases per 100,000 people – the benchmark set by the Scottish Government for moving to Level 1.

Swathes of Scotland, particularly in the Central Belt, have case rates many times that rate. They include Renfrewshire (155.2 cases), East Renfrewshire (149.7), Dundee (100.5) and Edinburgh (76.4)

Covid cases have surged by a quarter in the past week thanks to the more transmissible Indian variant, which now accounts for more than half of daily cases.

However, Ms Sturgeon on Monday reiterated that case numbers are becoming less important thanks to vaccination breaking the link with the spread of the virus, hospitalisations and deaths.

The Scottish government's case rate thresholds for areas to move down a level of restrictions were toughened in February to reflect the increased transmissibility of the Kent variant.

They have not been adjusted since to take into account the success of the UK's vaccination programme. Early evidence published last week showed that vaccines remain effective in tackling the Indian variant.

Mr Ross said: "The success of Scotland and the UK's vaccine scheme means we can now be far more positive about easing restrictions. Everyone understands that there will be a need for local, targeted measures when an outbreak occurs.

"But leaving behind whole areas should be ruled out. Sweeping measures that unnecessarily hurt a whole city or council area are unfair on businesses and local people waiting to get on with their lives. Selectively imposing restrictions and targeting resources at smaller areas is entirely possible."

Mainland Scotland is in Level 2 of Ms Sturgeon's five-tier system, with the exception of Glasgow, which will remain in Level 3 until at least Saturday following an outbreak in the city's south side linked to the Indian variant.

Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles, all islands in the Highlands except Skye and some Argyll and Bute islands are already in Level 1 thanks to their extremely low Covid rates.

Public Health Scotland data published on Monday showed that, on the mainland, only the Scottish Borders, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Dumfries and Galloway and Argyll and Bute have a Covid rate over the past week of fewer than 20 cases per 100,000 people.

Mr Yousaf told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that while the impact of new variants on the NHS was still being assessed, it may be necessary to hold some areas back.

He said: "It may not be the entire country moving to Level One. I think people would understand where there are rising case numbers, where there is rising test positivity... it may be the case that parts of the country move to level one but actually other parts of the country we decide to keep in Level Two."

Asked whether he was referring to Glasgow, he replied: "Glasgow – but also, I must be quite frank, there are other parts from the data that continue to give us cause for concern."

But Ms Sturgeon later highlighted an article by Prof Devi Sridhar, one of her Covid advisers, "on how vaccines open a path from the elimination approach advocated by many in earlier phase, to an ability to manage Covid differently and less restrictively".

The First Minister added: "It's a transition as we complete vaccination, but this is the path I hope Scotland is on."

Meanwhile, Mr Yousaf said there has been a "drastic" decrease in the number of people failing to turn up for their coronavirus vaccine appointments at SSE Hydro arena in Glasgow.