Nicola Sturgeon warns of dangers of 'house parties' as R number rises

Scotland's First Minister has warned that people holding ‘house parties’, as well as a failure to social distance in pubs, could be contributing to the spread of coronavirus, as she said the transmission rate of Covid-19 was estimated to be back above 1 for the first time in three months.

Nicola Sturgeon has warned against house parties.

At her daily coronavirus briefing, Nicola Sturgeon said that as well as fears about the risks of transmission in pubs and restaurants if people failed to stay two metres apart, there was new concern about “house parties”.

She said: “These present a considerable risk. Please stick to the rules about indoor gatherings, no more than eight people from three different households should be gathering indoors and adults must be two metres apart. These rules are not optional, they are vital.”

She added: “Clearly what people do within their own houses is hard for any enforcement action to work, so more than ever it relies on the good sense and judgement of all of us. If these rules are not abided by this virus will spread and we have evidence of that, and I don't want to be in the position of having to introduce restrictions again.”

Asked if she would look at giving Police Scotland new powers to enter people’s homes, she said: “From the start there has been a balance between encouraging people to do the right thing and police enforcement powers, and where we think it is necessary we will not hestitate to increase the ability of the police to enforce – we've made face coverings mandatory on pubic transport and shops, we’re about to make the collection of customer details in pubs and restaurants mandatory when both were previously just guidance – but I think that's always second best from a situation where people comply because it's the right thing to do.

"In people’s own homes there’s always going to be a common sense limit on the police's ability to check people are not breaking the ruiles. This is on all of us, it's our responsibility as individual citizens to help stop this virus to spread.”

The First Minister said she had no specific figures on house parties, but that the concern cane from data being collected by the test and protect service which had noted that house parties were where Covid had been likely transmitted. “It's information coming through that that tells us house parties are a risk,” she said.

Focusing on young people, whom she said now had more freedom as lockdown lifted, she reiterated: “Please take care, house parties are not a sensible thing to do right now.”

Ms Sturgeon also revealed that the R number – the rate of transmission of Covid – was rising again. While it had been between 0.7 and 1 back in May when she refused to lift the national lockdown, falling to between 0.6 and 0.8 when lockdown easing began, she said new estimates placed it as high as 1.3 last week.

But she said the R number was now a “less reliable indicator” because of the decrease in cases across the country but had possibly been “skewed” by local outbreaks in Aberdeen and Glasgow.

She said: “That fact is reflected in the latest figures which widens the possible range of the R number in Scotland. It includes the possibility that it was above one last week, the upper estimate could have been as high as 1.3. This is due in large part to the Aberdeen outbreak, but when the prevelence across the country is low the R number will be affected by an outbreak such as that in Aberdeen,

“It's important to keep it in context and persepective but it’s a reminder that we all need to do all we can to get this virus under control.”

Chief Medical Officer Gregor Smith, said the rise was “the inevitable consequence of opening up society again”. As people were being brought closer together “the more likely chains of transmission will establish themselves and lead to clusters.”

He added: “Transmission happens in more crowded situations, particularly in relation to pub environments and house parties. We cannot let our guard down.”

The First Minsiter said clusters were “inevitable” and added: “We should become used to hearing about individual clusters. It should remind us that Covid is still present and it will spread rapidly if it gets the opportunity.”

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