Covid in Scotland: Glasgow becomes only Scottish area in level 3
Glasgow is remaining under level three Covid restrictions for at least a further week amid concern over rising number of cases.
But Moray has now been downgraded from level three to level two - with all of Scotland's other areas remaining in their current levels. This includes East Renfrewshire, which now has the second highest number of cases per head of population. It means Glasgow is the only area under level three restrictions. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said cases were continuing to rise in Glasgow despite "extensive public health measures" being deployed across the city, including enhanced testing and vaccination in the areas with the highest rates of Covid. These have been particularly targeted in the G41 and G42 postcode areas in the southside of the city. And she said public health experts were "fairly certain" that the increase was being driven by the so-called Indian variant of the virus. The latest figures show that the rate of positive cases has continued to rise in Glasgow, to 122.6 per 100,000 of the population. The city's rate is once again the highest in Scotland, after briefly being surpassed by East Renfrewshire. And while some of the rise in confirmed cases can be attributed to increased testing in Glasgow, the positivity rate has also increased over the past week from 3.1% to 4%. The first minister said: "We don't think that we have turned the corner in Glasgow yet. "We are confident the major public health interventions under way will be effective and they will bring the virus back under control, but our judgement is that they need a bit longer to do that. "We also think we need a bit more time to be more confident than we are just now that vaccination will stop the rising case numbers today becoming sharply rising hospital and severe illness numbers a couple of weeks from now". However, there was better news for Moray - which had been the only other area of the country in level three of Scotland's five-tier system of restrictions. It will be moving down to level two from midnight on Friday after the infection rate fell from 98 new cases per 100,000 to just 34 over the past week. And East Renfrewshire will remain in level two despite having seen an average of 116 new cases per 100,000 people over the past week. Ms Sturgeon said this was because the overall number of cases in East Renfrewshire - which borders Glasgow - was significantly smaller than its larger neighbour, with only 17 on Thursday compared with 166 in Glasgow. And she said many more of the cases in East Renfrewshire could be traced to specific household clusters than in Glasgow. The first minister said it was felt that specific targeted measures would help to keep Covid rates in the area under control, and urged residents to co-operate with the increased testing and vaccination that had been put in place. She went on to announce new travel restrictions in response to "particularly serious outbreaks" of the Indian variant in England. It means restrictions on travel between Scotland and three local authority areas - Bedford, Bolton and Blackburn and Darwen - will be imposed from Monday. Ms Sturgeon said it was hoped these restrictions would not be in place for long, but said they were necessary to help "reduce the risk that any more of this new variant comes into Scotland while we are trying to deal with outbreaks of it we have right now". Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the Scottish government was "moving too slowly" in easing restrictions in parts of the country where the virus was under control. Mr Ross said: "We fully support a swift and decisive response, just as we saw in Moray recently, when a Covid outbreak occurs. "But we must now move to a more targeted approach that diverts resources to areas where the virus is spreading, while allowing the rest of the country to move on." 'Confront the challenge' Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said it was "devastating news" for businesses and employees in Glasgow that they would be remaining in level three. He added: "The best way to confront the challenge is to make sure we are seeing what happened in Moray happen in Glasgow. "let's have a mass roll-out of PCR testing and rapidly accessible vaccinations so that we can bring the case load down and have a consistency across the country." A further 414 new coronavirus cases have been recorded across the country in the past 24 hours - but no deaths. There were 81 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down two from the previous day, and of these four people were in intensive care, down one from the day before. The daily test positivity rate was 1.9%, up from 1.6% the previous day, while the R number - essentially the transmission rate for the virus - is now thought to be between 0.9 and 1.2 rather than last week's range of between 0.8 and 1. So far 3,820,251 people in Scotland have received the first dose of a Covid vaccination. What's allowed in different Covid levels? Under level three restrictions, groups of six people from two households can meet in cafés, pubs and restaurants. However, alcohol can only be served outdoors. And six people from six households can meet outside. But, you cannot visit people in their homes. Under level two restrictions, which East Renfrewshire is currently in, pubs and restaurants are allowed to serve alcohol inside until 22:30, and limited numbers of people can socialise indoors. Social distancing during meetings indoors or in private gardens is no longer required in levels one and two. Cinemas, theatres, concert halls, music venues, comedy clubs and bingo halls can reopen with restrictions.