Nicola Sturgeon: ‘Supermarkets are well-stocked ahead of Christmas, so please shop responsibly’

Nicola Sturgeon has asked Scots not to stockpile food ahead of Christmas, urging the public to “support each other and shop responsibly”.

The First Minister also told the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing on Monday there is “no risk” to supplies of the Covid-19 vaccine from the French ban on UK freight haulage.

She said there is no “immediate concern” over medicine supply, because stocks had been built up ahead of Brexit.

Urging people not to panic-buy from shops ahead of Christmas, Ms Sturgeon said: “We have been assured by supermarkets that they are well stocked for Christmas, so there is absolutely no need to buy any more than you normally would.

Non-essential shops in Scotland will close on Boxing Day.

“I would ask everybody to please support each other and shop responsibly.”

Ms Sturgeon then turned to the developments over the weekend, when it was announced that, from Boxing Day, the whole of mainland Scotland will be in the toughest tier of restrictions for at least three weeks

She said: “I understand how upsetting Saturday's announcements were in particular for so many of you. None of the actions I announced on Saturday were taken lightly.”

She added, however, that analysis of the new variant of Covid-19 “does give us real cause for concern”.

It comes as Scotland recorded 1,504 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours.

The First Minister said a “processing backlog” in the UK lighthouse testing system is partially behind the figure being “significantly higher” than in recent days.

No deaths of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days were recorded in the past 24 hours, with this toll remaining at 4,283.

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