When will Covid announcements get any clearer? - Elsa Maishman

Scotland is approaching 18 months of this pandemic.

A year and a half of hopping in and out of restrictions, from national to localised lockdowns, through more televised briefings than anyone cares to count.

And yet still, the communication hasn’t become any more coherent.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced last week that Scotland will move “beyond Level 0” today.

A person uses their phone to film a televised broadcast of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaking to MSPS during a virtual sitting of the Scottish Parliament. Picture date: Tuesday August 3, 2021.

Apart from the dystopian language – what have we moved to? Level -1? – the Scottish Government seemed to have no clear idea what this meant.

Ms Sturgeon has been trailing this move since June, meaning officials have had at least a month and a half to plan this announcement.

While public health data changes on a constant basis, you would think they might have thought up a few clear options to choose from, and then when the time came, made a decision that could then be clearly announced.

Instead, Ms Sturgeon announced on Tuesday that nightclubs would be able to open from this week.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said on Wednesday that he didn’t know if face coverings would need to be worn in these nightclubs, and that “vertical drinking”, ie drinking standing at a bar, would not be allowed without a face covering.

The Scottish Government confirmed later the same day that in fact Mr Swinney was wrong, and that face coverings would not be needed when dancing or drinking standing up.

On Friday, the government published formal advice which confirmed this. It also revealed that children under 12 will now be exempt from wearing a face covering, which was not in the First Minister’s initial announcement.

Asked to clarify the position on this, a Scottish Government spokesperson admitted they weren’t really sure.

Who can blame them? The guidance has shifted almost every day since its announcement, the official advice published on Friday was buried in an innocuous-sounding document titled “Staying safe and protecting others”, and the specific face covering guidance hasn’t been updated since before Ms Sturgeon’s announcement last week.

The Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly difficult to deal with, and the situation changes every day.

But after 18 months of practice, with a decision that has been planned for weeks, and with case numbers and other markers heading along quite steady trajectories, surely the new guidance could have been clearer.

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.