Nicola Sturgeon warns against Scottish day trips, but gives green light to outdoor exercise

People are being warned against taking “day trips” to beaches and parks as Scotland is in the “most perilous and serious position since the start of the pandemic”, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Urging people to stay at home, the First Minister said: “At the moment, we are in a really dangerous situation. I hope we will see case numbers stabilise in the days to come, but that will only be possible and, if we achieve it, will only be sustainable if we all stay at home.”

However, Ms Sturgeon said that unlike the lockdown last spring, outdoor exercise was allowed – but that did not involve taking “day trips”.

Outoor exercise is allowed under new restrictions - but not a pleasure visit to a beach.

“When you are outdoors for essential exercise, if you are mixing with another household, it must be a maximum of two people from two households,” she said. “It's really important that we stop this virus transmitting as much as possible.”

But exercise was not “going for a day trip with other people to the beach or to a park”. “I know that sounds harsh, but it is really important that all of us right now stay at home as much as we possibly can,” Ms Sturgeon said.

She said the legal restrictions were stringent, but she had been contacted by people who said parks and beaches had been busy.

“Right now one of the reasons for being out of our homes is essential exercise, but we must see it as that – essential exercise,” she said.

"We shouldn’t be going for day trips to parks or spending lots of time where there are lots of other people. If you go anywhere crowded, my strong advice to you is to come away from that. Just think back as to how we all complied with lockdown last spring. That’s really what we should be doing this time as well.”

Ms Sturgeon said there were now more people in hospital than at any time since the pandemic started. “That is putting our health service under strain,” she said. “Our current case numbers mean this pressure will continue in the weeks to come.”

She urged people to "stick to the rules" and only leave home for essential purposes.

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.