Coronavirus in Scotland RECAP: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says planned May 17 lockdown easing will ‘go ahead’ | pubs and cinemas to reopen | Moray still facing covid spike | 10 relaxed coronavirus rules
Hello, and welcome to our live blog for Tuesday, May 11.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to confirm today that Covid rules will be relaxed further next week – and you can get all the updates in our dedicated live blog.
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Coronavirus in Scotland LIVE: Nicola Sturgeon confirmed on Tuesday that Covid rules will be relaxed further next week
Key Events
- FM eases rules on indoor visits
- Pubs and restaurants allowed to serve alcohol indoors
- Meeting indoors and hugging from Monday
- Scotland’s islands will move to Level 1
Total of 152,704 Covid-related deaths in UK
A total of 152,704 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS said.
The highest number of deaths to occur on a single day was 1,477 on January 19.
During the first wave of the virus, the daily death toll peaked at 1,461 deaths on April 8 2020.
Pupils warned against sharing assessments on social media
School pupils in Scotland have been warned against sharing details of assessments on social media.
In a letter from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) sent to schools on Monday, director of qualifications development Dr Gill Stewart said they had been made aware of “very serious incidents” of assessments being shared.
The letter goes on to say “appropriate penalties” should be applied to pupils in breach of exam rules, but these should be used by individual schools and not by the SQA.
As a result of coronavirus, the exams in Scotland were cancelled and replaced with internal assessments, but critics have claimed these are exams by another name.
The letter said the SQA provided “optional secure assessment materials” for schools to use, but given the extra flexibility afforded to teachers and schools this year, pupils across the country are sitting exams at different times, meaning questions could be leaked.
The Times Educational Supplement Scotland reported on Monday of an “SQA black market” on the social media site TikTok, with pupils “begging” for questions to be shared before they sit their assessment.
The letter said: “SQA has been made aware of very serious incidents involving candidates sharing confidential assessment content on social media.
“We are taking this matter very seriously and have contacted the centres to ensure that the posts are removed as soon as possible, and that any candidate malpractice concerns are managed locally within the centres.”
Can I stay in a hotel in Scotland? Date holiday accommodation will reopen after lockdown
Can I stay in a hotel in Scotland? Date holiday accommodation will reopen after lockdown
The reopening of Scotland’s economy kicked into gear on April 26.
Revolution ups full-year outlook after ‘rapid recovery’ at reopened bars
Revolution Bars has hiked its full-year outlook thanks to a “rapid recovery” across sites that have reopened as Britons braved the cold to drink outside.
Shares in the group surged as much as 16% as it said the 25 bars that have reopened for outdoor service have traded “extremely strongly”, with sales running at 48% of pre-pandemic levels in the month to May 9.
Revolution, which has 66 sites across the UK, said it is expecting a surge in demand over the summer months as the restrictions are lifted.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the Government is taking a “cautious approach” to easing travel restrictions to ensure the progress in combating coronavirus was not jeopardised by new variants from overseas.
PM sets England on road back to normality in confirming May 17 lockdown easing
People in England will be able to hug loved ones, dine in restaurants and go on holiday abroad from next week in a “considerable step on the road back to normality”, Boris Johnson has confirmed.
The move to the next stage of the road map out of lockdown on May 17 came as the Covid-19 alert level in the UK was downgraded after a “consistent” fall in cases, hospital admissions and deaths.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will give an update on restrictions on Tuesday, having indicated Scotland could be granted renewed freedoms along similar lines from Monday.
The Prime Minister set out a new approach to tackling the virus, giving people greater responsibility for their own choices on whether to observe social distancing with friends and family.
“Today we are taking a step towards that moment when we learn to live responsibly with Covid, when we cease eventually to rely on detailed Government edicts and make our own decisions,” he said.
Confirmation that England would move to step three on the road map came from Mr Johnson at a Downing Street press conference after a Cabinet meeting to sign off the change.
The Prime Minister said: “This unlocking amounts to a very considerable step on the road map to normality and I am confident that we will be able to go further.”
Protesters call for AstraZeneca to share Covid-19 vaccine technology
Protesters are to gather outside AstraZeneca’s Cambridge headquarters to demand the pharmaceutical firm shares its Covid-19 vaccine technology.
The demonstration, organised by Global Justice Now, is calling for the British-Swedish company to openly licence its jab and commit to sharing the technology with the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Protests are also planned at the firm’s Macclesfield site and at the University of Oxford, which worked with AstraZeneca to develop the vaccine.
Global Justice Now said the action, which coincides with AstraZeneca’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, also seeks to persuade Oxford University to make all of its future medical innovations open-licenced.
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said: “Scientists at Oxford University, a publicly-funded institution, developed this lifesaving vaccine through a research and development process that was 97% publicly funded.
“The resulting vaccine should have been openly accessible to everyone, but AstraZeneca swooped in and privatised it.
“The UK is reaping the benefits of the highly effective vaccines that are now available, but people in low and middle-income countries are still dying daily by the thousands from Covid-19.
“AstraZeneca like to portray themselves as the good guys, but they’ve boycotted attempts to pool the vaccine knowledge they control just like all the other Pharma giants – and now claim they have no time to share this knowledge globally.
“Today, we’re demanding AstraZeneca pool this publicly created knowledge so the whole world can ramp up production of these vaccines.”
Coronavirus in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon to announce covid restriction easing today, when is she speaking, what will she say about meeting indoors, pubs and cinemas, how can you watch
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