Nicola Sturgeon has said a “substantial degree of normality” will be restored from Monday but insisted it is too early to declare victory over Covid-19.
The bulk of restrictions will be swept away next week as social distancing, limits to the size of gatherings and legal limits on hospitality venues’ opening times are scrapped.
“This change is significant and it is hard-earned,” the first minister said. “However, it is important to be clear that it does not signal the end of the pandemic or a return to life exactly as we knew it before Covid struck.”
Linda Bauld, professor of public health at Edinburgh University, said the “basket of indicators” on the state of the pandemic had improved from a month ago. “A natural move now is to move away from the levels system and really try to identify a framework we can all live with in the coming weeks and months”, she said.
After almost 18 months of restrictions, a string of significant changes will come into force on Monday, August 9.
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Face coverings
People will still be legally required to wear face coverings in all the same indoor settings as in level zero, such as shops, hospitality venues and on public transport. While it will be kept under review, Sturgeon told MSPs that she expected them to be mandated in law “for some time to come”.
Large-scale events
Music festivals and sports events with spectators will resume but organisers of outdoor gatherings for more than 5,000 people, and indoor events for more than 2,000, will have to submit an operations and risk assessment to the local authority for permission. This application process will remain only “for a limited period”. Football and rugby clubs will be expected to apply to admit significantly larger numbers of fans than permitted before.
Covid vaccine passports
Sturgeon confirmed that a “Covid status certification” app is being developed and will be launched next month to assist Scots looking to travel overseas for holidays and to be reunited with family members.
She said that it could potentially be amended to be used for domestic situations, such as nightclubs and music festivals, but she added: “I can assure parliament that we do not underestimate the ethical, equity and human rights issues associated with Covid status certification.”
Hospitality
Pubs, restaurants and cafés will have restrictions on their opening hours removed. Nightclubs will be able to open for the first time since March last year. However, businesses must continue to collect customer details for the Test and Protect system. It is not yet clear whether people in nightclubs will need to wear face coverings. The first minister said that guidance would be issued on this before Monday.
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Self-isolation
Close contacts of those who test positive for Covid will no longer have to automatically self-isolate, as long as two weeks have passed since they received their second dose of the vaccine, and they have no symptoms. Instead they must take a PCR test and can end self-isolation if this comes back negative. The same process applies to children between five and 17, regardless of vaccination status.
Schools
Pupils and teachers in secondary schools will continue to wear face coverings and the one-metre social distancing rule will remain for at least six weeks after the summer holidays end. However, whole classes will no longer need to self-isolate when a pupil tests positive, with only the closest contacts required to test and isolate.
All school staff and secondary school pupils will be asked to take a lateral flow test one or two days before they return for the new term, then twice a week.
In addition, carbon dioxide monitors, which assess how well-ventilated a space is, are required in schools and childcare settings. Children under five will be “encouraged but not required” to take PCR tests.
Workplaces
The Scottish government will continue to promote home working where possible for now. It will also encourage employers to consider a “hybrid” model of home and office working, which Sturgeon said might have “benefits beyond the need to control a virus.”
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Students
Individuals returning to study at universities and colleges next month will be asked to take a PCR test before moving into accommodation, and then to test twice a week.
Crowded city bars and clubs are the biggest threats to Scotland’s recovery from the pandemic. Having looked at the evidence from England and further afield Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, says that some of the busiest settings in the “nighttime economy” were likely to become hotspots for the virus (Mike Wade writes).
“We’ve seen in other countries that when clubs are open, and there’s still infection, they end up getting shut again,” she said. “We’re going to have to wait and see whether there’s any impact.”
Optimism about the general decline in cases in England should be tempered by a spike in coronavirus in Lincoln, linked to a nightclub, she warned.
New cases in Lincoln increased by 83 per cent to 649 in the week to July 29, giving the area England’s highest infection rate of 654 per 100,000 people. In the waterfront district, with bars, clubs and restaurants, the rate was 1,140 per 100,000, with most cases found in the under-30s.
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Bauld said the key moments in the trajectory of the virus would come with the return of schools this month and the start of the year in higher education. “The big questions are around the schools and universities and what happens when you get thousands of young people mixing again, who have either had no vaccines because they’re not eligible, or are only partially vaccinated, as in university students,” she said.
She noted evidence from Israel suggesting immunity was waning for the first groups vaccinated. “Boosters are on the cards, but will you get the boosters to enough people quick enough?”
Pressure on the NHS was likely to increase in winter, she added.
