First minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged people in Scotland to limit their socialising to three households before and after Christmas in order to curb the spread of the omicron variant of coronavirus.
Announcing new measures on Tuesday 14 December, Ms Sturgeon insisted she was “not asking anyone to cancel Christmas”, but advised Scots to rein in their social commitments over the course of the festive season. She stressed it was not a legal requirement but instead strong advice to be considered.
Setting out the new guidance north of the border, the Scottish National Party leader insisted that she was not asking Scots to change their plans for Christmas Day, Christmas Eve or Boxing Day. “And we are not proposing limits on the size of household gatherings,” she added.
“My key request today is this: before and immediately after Christmas, please minimise your social mixing with other households as much as you can,” the first minister said, characterising the advice as “strong guidance” and warning citizens: “Please do not think of it as optional.”
Care home visits are also being limited to two households, with all visitors asked to present a negative Covid test before entering to reduce the risk to vulnerable residents.
Businesses are meanwhile being told to encourage their staff to work from home where possible and to implement “a return to the kind of protections in place at the start of the pandemic.
This means Scottish shops enforcing social distancing and putting up protective screens and pubs, bars and restaurants all having to implement systems to prevent crowding and make sure customers’ details are taken for contact tracing.
Vaccine booster appointments are being made available to all over-18s through online booking as of Wednesday, with the programme being given priority over the flu vaccine and “additional capacity” being made available, Ms Sturgeon assured Holyrood.
“Just as vaccines started to win this race, the virus learned to run faster. That means we must deliver boosters even faster,” she told MSPs.
“This is all the more important in light of early data telling us that the protection we have against omicron infection with just one or two doses is significantly lower than it is for delta – we need a booster jab to ensure a substantial level of protection against omicron.”
Scotland had just recorded a further 110 confirmed omicron cases on the day Ms Sturgeon announced her restrictions, taking the total to 226. It has since more than doubled to 554.
Deputy first minister John Swinney warned on BBC Radio Scotland on Wednesday that further coronavirus restrictions may “potentially” be needed before Christmas if the omicron situation worsens.
“Potentially that could be the case, but we want to avoid that,” he said.
“We hope we have done enough in the announcements that were made yesterday and we hope members of the public and businesses will work with us in a co-operative spirit to make sure we can take these provisions forward.”
That came after Professor James Chalmers of Dundee University said the new measures put in place by Ms Sturgeon may slow the spread of omicron but they are not enough in themselves to reverse the rise in infections.
“I think the government need to be ready next week, as we get more data on the vaccine protection against severe disease and other gaps that currently need to be filled in terms of our knowledge, to think about what other measures may be required,” Professor Chalmers said.
“If this is as bad as we think it is going to be, there may still be other measures required over the Christmas and the new year period.
“The modelling looks like in the worst case scenario we could have a really difficult winter, and we can’t allow the health service to be overwhelmed.
“We need to be prepared and we need to prepare the public that we may require further restrictions.”
