Nicola Sturgeon: Easing Edinburgh restrictions like "throwing petrol on embers"

Nicola Sturgeon says her controversial decision to keep Edinburgh in Level 3 of Covid-19 restrictions has been vindicated after a spike in cases in the city over the past week.

Nicola Sturgeon kept Edinburgh in Level 3

The First Minister said if she had eased restrictions in the capital last week it would have been like "throwing petrol on smouldering embers."

Ms Sturgeon said ministers had been aware of numbers "edging up" in the city when she decided to keep it in Level 3 at last Tuesday's review of levels - despite pubic health officials recommending that it be taken down to Level 2.

It prompted a court challenge last Friday which saw the Scottish Government's approach endorsed by a judge.

And Ms Sturgeon said today that indicators, such as case levels, are only "part of the decision making process.".

She added: "We have to apply context and judgement to those to reach our final decisions.

"There was court challenge to the Edinburgh decision at the end of last week and a judge on Friday night issued a judgement that the decision making process of the Scottish Government was rational. He expressly noted that the Scottish Government has always made clear that it had to be a rounded decision."

The First Minister told today's Coronavirus briefing that the decisions for the capital would be "tough and unpopular."

But she added; "If I look at the data since last Tuesday, then I have to conclude that the decision we took last Tuesday not to take Edinburgh down a level was actually the right one.

"I look at the most recent data, and I'll see another iteration of this later today, the most recent data says that in the seven day period cases in Edinburgh increased by 33%. Test positivity is now almost at 5% again.

"And when we took the decision last Tuesday, the reason that we took the decision was because we had already started to see that edging up in cases.

She added: "When you're starting to see that kind of increase it would not be a sensible thing to do to ease restrictions - it would be like throwing petrol on smouldering embers."

Cases are also rising across the wider Lothians area at the moment which must be taken into account when decisions are taken around easing restrictions.

The First Minister refused to be drawn on whether this means Edinburgh will remain in level 3 when she set out her final review of the year in in Parliament on Tuesday, but she said people can “draw their own conclusions” from the data showing a spike in cases.

“I’ll set out the decisions that cabinet reaches in Parliament tomorrow afternoon.”

Hospitality bosses brought a judicial review before the Court of Session last week over the decision to keep Edinburgh in level 3, claiming it was "flawed" and did not reflect Public Health Scotland advice or case figures.

But Lord Ericht found in his ruling that the Government was entitled to take into account the “slight increase and the risk associated with Christmas” and to balance this against statistics in the indicators showing that general figures in Edinburgh are low.

"That's a political decision with which the court will not interfere,” he said,

But Labour leader Richard Leonard said there has been a “real lack of transparency” surrounding the restrictions imposed on businesses by the Scottish Government.

"Many hospitality businesses have lived with draconian restrictions since October, when what we were told was to be a fortnightly 'circuit breaker' was first introduced,” he said.

"Business owners and workers in Edinburgh deserve an explanation from Nicola Sturgeon as to why they are still forced to live under these restrictions, despite expert public health advice to the contrary."

Among the strongest critics of the decision to keep Edinburgh in Level 3 last week was SNP council leader Adam McVey, who demanded a “full explanation” from the Government.

Depute leader, Cammy Day of Labour, accused the Scottish Government of “actively damaging businesses” and revealed council leaders were told by public health officials that the city was “meeting the criteria” to go down to level 2

The five-tiered system of restrictions will effectively be put on hold from a week on Wednesday when a five-day festive regime comes into effect allowing people to travel to see loved ones and meet up indoors in bubbles of up to three households.

The First Minister said she is also continuing to look at restrictions in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire which remain in Level 2 despite increasing case numbers which has led to calls for them to go up to level 2.

Ms Sturgeon said yesterday there have been some “specific factors” such a concentrated outbreaks in care homes.

But she added: “We are not necessarily convinced that they explain the whole situation in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire so we will be looking carefully at those areas.

"These are not straightforward decisions and I appreciate that for people living with the consequences of them it is far from straightforward for them.

"It would be much easier if it was a simple algorithm but it’s not. We have to apply lots of judgements to try to get these decisions as right as possible to stop situations deteriorating or when we do see a deterioration to try to act quickly.”