Nicola Sturgeon says Scotland faces 'difficult winter' ahead of Cobra meeting about Christmas covid easing'

The First Minister addressed the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday ahead of a four nations meeting to discuss potential easing of restrictions over Christmas time.

Ms Sturgeon has warned that, despite the potential vaccine reaching the UK shores before Christmas: “the winter period ahead will be difficult.”

She also said that there was “real and legitimate anxiety” about loosening restrictions over the festive period, particularly with a vaccine so close to being rolled out in Scotland.

Picture credit: Jeff J Mitchell

The First Minister has asked people to “err on the side of caution” though she added that the light at the end of the tunnel was “getting brighter” with the possibility of vaccinations to start before Christmas.

Tuesday saw 771 new positive cases of coronavirus in Scotland, with 1,197 patients in hospital, 84 in intensive care and 41 people have died after testing positive for the virus.

The R number now falls between 0.8 and 1.

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.