Nicola Sturgeon 'anxious' to improve quality of family and community life under lockdown

She added that “difficult decisions” will have to be made to protect elderly and more vulnerable people in the longer term.

Two families maintain social distancing while talking to each other outside a home in Hampstead, north London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The First Minister has said how the Scottish Government decides to protect elderly and more vulnerable people from Covid-19 will be a “difficult decision”.

Nicola Sturgeon also responded indirectly to calls from the readers of The Scotsman and Edinburgh Evening News for her to prioritise allowing people to see family and friends ahead of restarting the economy and getting people back to work, saying she was “anxious” to do so.

Responding to a question from Labour MSP Pauline McNeill about whether guidance for those over the age of 70 will be made in a blanket way or dependent on individual advice from doctors, the First Minister said any decision would be made based on human rights, equity and fairness.

Ms McNeill highlighted concerns from the medical profession that using an “arbitrary age” for restrictions could “potentially cause more life due to the risk of depression and anxiety by being so disconnected from society.”

Ms Sturgeon said she recognised the concerns in her own family, including her 90-year-old mother-in-law, and said the decisions made by government may differ from those individuals would want to make.

She said there is a “real need” to protect the elderly given more than nine out of ten Covid-19 deaths have affected those over the age of 65.

Ms Sturgeon added: “One of the discussions we will have, and it will be very much clinically informed, is how we best protect and care for those with significant conditions, those in the current shielding group, but also those in the older population.

“This is a virus that is particularly deadly for older people. Some of the judgements here are difficult and I hear the impact on the phone on my own parents or my much more elderly mother-in-law, of not seeing grandchildren right now.

“If you say to people like that, do you want us to protect you in a way that will preserve your life for a number of years or do you want us to allow us to see your grandchildren, they may come to different decisions than we would come to on their behalf.

“These are going to be some of the most difficult decisions we are going to have to make given that we will all be living with this virus for quite some time to come.”

Earlier during First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon also responded to similar concerns raised by the readers of The Scotsman and the Edinburgh Evening News about focusing on allowing people to see family and friends.

A readers survey found more than 70 per cent wanted their social life to be prioritised over returning to work.

Responding to a question from Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Willie Rennie, Ms Sturgeon said she was “anxious” to shift the focus.

She said: “There is a focus understandably on the economy and getting people back to work, I’m as anxious to do that as anyone for obvious reasons.

“But we have to also focus on the social and family aspect of this and what I am really conscious of is that if we try to put all our focus on getting people back to work, but say every other aspect of their life has to stay in lockdown, for people’s quality of life we are actually making decisions there that are really, really difficult.

“I am anxious about the economy but I also want to think about how we start to get some quality of family and community back for people as well.”