Scotland shuts down restaurants, pubs to contain COVID spike

While pubs and restaurants will be able to open in other parts of Scotland, they can only serve alcohol outdoors and must adhere to strict opening and closing times. "This is intended to be short, sharp action to arrest a worrying increase in infection," said Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister.

Restaurants, cafes and pubs across central Scotland are to be closed from Friday until October 25 under new measures unveiled on Wednesday aimed at tackling a “worrying” spike in coronavirus cases. The new rules will apply to all licensed premises across the central belt of the region, including cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. While pubs and restaurants will be able to open in other parts of Scotland, they can only serve alcohol outdoors and must adhere to strict opening and closing times.

"This is intended to be short, sharp action to arrest a worrying increase in infection," said Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister. The new rules, which apply to about 3.4 million people, vary from the rest of the United Kingdom as each region sets its own lockdown measures in response to the infection rate. The restrictions for the central belt of Scotland cover people living in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Forth Valley, Lothian and Ayrshire and Arran health board areas. Residents in these areas will be encouraged not to travel outside unless absolutely essential.

The Scottish government promised an extra 40 million pounds of government support to go towards businesses affected by the fresh restrictions. It has also confirmed that annual exams will be cancelled for this academic year, with an "alternative approach" to be worked out based on exam centre estimates and teachers' judgements.

Announcing the new rules in the Scottish Parliament, Sturgeon said: "Indoor environments, where different households from different age groups can mix, inevitably present a risk of transmission. That risk can be increased in some hospitality premises if good ventilation is difficult, and if it is hard to control the movement of people. "And the presence of alcohol can of course affect people's willingness to physically distance." The new restrictions come in as Scotland recorded more than 1,000 new confirmed cases of the virus in a single day for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Labour Party challenged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to publish the scientific basis on which England’s lockdown measures have been imposed. All pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues in England have been required to close at 10pm since September 24, as part of a package of measures to try and contain a surge of new cases in the north of England. However, there is growing scepticism over the effectiveness of the measure to keep the infection rate down.

During his weekly Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Johnson insisted the combination of local and national measures in place were needed to deal with the continued sharp rise in cases in Manchester and Liverpool but also the uptick in infections in the Midlands and London. "The local and regional approach, combined with national measures, remains correct because two thirds of those admitted into hospital on Sunday were in the North East, North West and Yorkshire," he said.

Meanwhile, official figures show that a further 70 people have died from the deadly virus, bringing the UK death toll to 42,515.

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