Coronavirus in Scotland: No guarantee restrictions will be eased by Easter holidays as some pupils return to school

Lockdown restrictions in Scotland will be eased with a “great deal of caution” and no guarantee of relaxation in time for Easter holidays, Deputy First Minister Johny Swinney has said ahead of a return to school for some pupils on Monday.

S5 and S6 pupils at St Columba's High School in Gourock, Inverclyde, wear protective face masks during history lesson while schools were open previously.

It comes as Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford announced a potential easing of tourism restrictions in time for Easter, with the Welsh Government reviewing the “possibility” of allowing self-contained accommodation to reopen in six weeks’ time.

But when asked if the same measures could be taken in Scotland during the coronavirus daily briefing on Friday, Mr Swinney warned that the Scottish Government will take a “cautious” approach.

“I wouldn’t separate the Easter Holidays from all the other judgements the Scottish Government is making [...] in our approach to the strategic framework [out of lockdown] the government is going to exercise a great deal of caution,” he said.

“We have to that because we must be certain that we are successfully suppressing the virus to the greatest extent possible.”

Mr Swinney said that allowing children and young people to full time face-to-face education is the Scottish Government’s “overriding priority” in easing lockdown restrictions.

“As a consequence of that it may be other sectors of our society have got to live with further restrictions for a longer period to enable our children to get back into face-to-face-schooling,” he said.

Data for the week commencing February 6 estimated one in 180 people in Scotland had coronavirus – the lowest rate of the four nations of the UK.

Scotland had recorded 31 deaths from coronavirus and 885 positive tests in the previous 24 hours, with 1,222 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, down 39 in 24 hours, and 98 patients are in intensive care, up three.

Children in P1 to P3 will return to school on Monday alongside a number of senior pupils who need to complete practical work for national qualifications.

Older pupils and staff will be told to wear face coverings and maintain a two metre distance as much as possible, and twice weekly at-home lateral flow tests will be made available.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is set to announce a roadmap for bringing Scotland out of lockdown on Tuesday.

The Scottish Conservatives have called for “clarity and hope” ahead of the First Minister’s announcement.

"The single most important thing that government can give to businesses and individuals is certainty going forward,” said Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross.

“There needs to be a complete approach to gradually removing restrictions and ending the lockdown. One key question is whether there will be a local or national approach."

He added: “People also need to know what the ‘new normal’ will look like in respect of schooling, the workplace, leisure and travel. [...] It’s fantastic that more than 1.3million Scots have received their first vaccine but they also need to know how vaccination progress will be linked to restrictions being eased.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called for more information to be made available around the easing of restrictions.

"Ministers need to let the public know whether they expect the whole country to relax restrictions together, whether we will return to the tier system of last year and which areas will be prioritised if only some restrictions can be loosened,” he said.

Mr Swinney warned parents on Friday not to relax their adherence to lockdown rules as their children return to school.

Parents and carers have a “really important role” in making the return to schools a “success”, he said.

"For example, if you've been working from home up until now, please continue to do so - even if your children are back at school or nursery. Your employer has a legal obligation to support you in doing that,” he said.

"Don't use this return as an opportunity to meet up with other parents or friends, and as a general rule, if you find that you are meeting up with more people than you were before once your children have returned to school, then think about why that is."

"All of us should be minimising our social contacts right now. In addition, when you're out of the house - at the school gates, for example - please remember to follow the FACTS advice."

The Deputy First Minister labelled the partial return of in-school teaching an “important milestone”.

“The evidence suggests that the key risk in reopening schools isn't transmission within schools and nurseries but the greater contact it leads to among the adult population,” he said.

Lateral flow tests will be made available twice a week for staff and older pupils to bring home, but Mr Swinney said the delivery of some of these tests has been delayed by the recent snow.

"Pilot testing programmes have been running in a small number of schools in recent weeks, and we're using what we've learned from this to roll the programme out across the country,” he said.

"As part of that, we've been working closely with the UK Government to get test kits into schools. This process has obviously been affected by the severe weather that we've experienced in recent days."

Some 2,500 schools have already received testing kits, and Mr Swinney said the remainder would be delivered on Friday or at the beginning of next week.

Mr Swinney stressed that testing was “entirely voluntary”, but added: “The use of testing is a very important addition to the other safety mitigation that are already in place.”

The Education Secretary also told parents that their children cannot take part in ‘playdates’ inside other children’s homes. Asked why this is not allowed if children can safely return to face-to-face teaching, Mr Swinney said that schools are an “organised environment” where mitigations are in place to reduce the risk of virus transmission.

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