![]() ![]() ![]() She “desperately wanted” to get schools reopened speeding up or expanding vaccinations depended on the availability of supplies. The decision to keep schools and nurseries closed would be reviewed in mid-January. Sturgeon said they wanted to increase vaccinations of school and nursery staff not already included in the vaccination priority lists, to improve the chances that schools could reopen later this month, but she admitted the Scottish government could not change the UK-wide rules. Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, said the implementation of online learning across Scotland was erratic and needed to be improved. Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tories’ leader at Holyrood, said the Scottish children’s commissioner, Bruce Adamson, had said children’s mental health life chances were being affected by school closures. Opposition parties said support for schools, parents and businesses had to improve. ![]() Scotland’s island groups, the Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney, would remain at level 3 for now, Sturgeon added, although all schools in the islands would also close for the time being she said a spate of new outbreaks in Shetland was particularly concerning. However, in the week to 30 December, the seven-day incidence of cases per 100,000 people increased by 65%, from 136 to 225.Īn already restricted Edinburgh city centre. With the latest data delayed because of public sector holidays, she said a full update would not be available until Tuesday. NHS boards were already under intense pressure: 96% of Covid-19 beds in Ayrshire and Arran were full, as were 60% of those in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Borders and Lanarkshire health boards. She added: “Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation we face now than I have been at any time since March last year.” She said the approval of two vaccines was “hugely positive and offers us the way out of this pandemic”, but the faster spreading variant was “a massive blow”. She said there was “compelling” evidence the new variant was about 70% more infectious and could push up the R number of infections by 0.7. Sturgeon told MSPs she was more alarmed about the threat posed by Covid-19 than she had been since March. While Scotland has not experienced the sharp escalation in the number of Covid patients in hospital seen in parts of England over the last week, the number of positive cases has risen to a new record high every day, hitting 2,464 on Sunday. ![]()
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