Image source, SNS

The new lockdown restrictions imposed on the city of Aberdeen will not affect St Johnstone’s home match against Aberdeen in Perth on Saturday.

Professional players and staff operate within a testing bubble and can still travel. They also do not play in front of a crowd.

The SPFL has been seeking clarification following the news of new restrictions but has been told the game will go ahead as planned.

Aberdeen are also due to host Hamilton at home on Tuesday - as it stands, that game is also unaffected.

An Edinburgh man who is the only survivor from a household hit by Covid-19 has warned the public not to drop their guard against the disease.

Scott Miller was critically ill in intensive care when his mother and her partner died from the virus.

He knew nothing of their deaths until he was brought out of a medically-induced coma.

Scott shared a flat with his 76-year-old mother Norma, who had dementia, and her partner, who was 69.

Lisa Summers
BBC Scotland Health Correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Scotland's Test and Protect system is a key part of the efforts to control coronavirus clusters.

As First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that lockdown measures are to be re-introduced in Aberdeen to deal with an outbreak in the city, we look at how the system has been working.

Scotland has favoured a "boots on the ground" approach when it comes to Test and Protect, external.

As soon as a cluster is detected, local NHS health protection teams take charge of the incident. The belief is that local knowledge is the best way to break a cluster down.

It is about that basic principle of person, place and time, and local teams do the detective work. Where has the initial positive case been? Who have they been in contact with?

Read more here

Some lockdown restrictions are being reimposed in Aberdeen after 54 people tested positive for coronavirus.

The cluster stemmed from the Hawthorn Bar, but the first minister said there was now evidence of community transmission.

Pubs and restaurants in the city will close by 5pm this evening.

In addition:

• There are 64 new cases of the virus in Scotland overall. Of these, 36 were in Grampian and 15 were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
• Seven people died last week where coronavirus was mentioned on the certificate.
• But no deaths following a positive test result for Covid-19 were registered in the last 24 hours, for the 20th consecutive day.

Image source, PA Media

Rachel Watson from the Daily Mail asks the first minister if she admits that some children were not graded fairly in yesterday's school results?

Ms Sturgeon says that because there were no exams, the SQA had to find a new way of assessing.

"I suppose whatever way they had chosen to do that there would have been controversy around it," she says.

"If we had just gone with teacher judgement with no moderation, I am pretty certain that there would have been a lot of criticism about us trying to over-inflate achievements and we would have had an issue from a different perspective."

Ms Sturgeon says it was never going to be easy.

The first minister says three-quarters of grades were not moderated, although this is no comfort for those that were.

Ms Sturgeon highlights that there is now a free appeals process.

"I am really sorry that we had to put in place something different because of the pandemic," she said. "We are trying to get it right."

Yesterday was not the end of the process, she said.

Image source, EPA

Daniel Sanderson from the Daily Telegraph asks why pubs in Aberdeen are being closed but not non-essential retail?

The first minister says; "There will always be questions of why X and not Y."

She says: "These are not always simple questions to answer."

Ms Sturgeon said, from what we know about Aberdeen so far, it appears to have been the "night-time economy" - pubs and restaurants - that was have been more susceptible.

She said she was taking a precautionary approach but trying not to be disproportionate. She wanted people, as far as possible, to go about their normal lives.

Dr Gregor Smith said shops were a very different environment from pubs and restaurants.

He said people don't tend to linger and sit at surfaces in retail and there was much more risk in pubs and restaurants.

Adele Merson from The P&J asks if it is unrealistic to expect schools to reopen in a weeks' time and when parents would be told if they will not.

Ms Sturgeon says the decision today is about protecting the ability of schools to return.

"If it is a choice between hospitality and schools, we are choosing schools right now," she adds.

Image source, Richard Slessor/Geograph

Christine Lavelle from The Scottish Sun asks if there is any evidence that any of the 54 people in the Aberdeen cluster do not live in the city.

The first minister says: "I don't have the breakdown in front of me but there are some who have been in Aberdeen, so we have confidence they are associated with the cluster in Aberdeen, but may not live there.

"From what I understand, the majority live in Aberdeen but we'll see about trying to provide a bit more detail on that."

Nicola Sturgeon says the situation in Aberdeen "should be the biggest wake-up call since the early days" of the pandemic that coronavirus is still a danger.

She says cases rising again around the world has been worrying her in recent weeks, but she accepts for many it seems "far away and there's always a sense of 'we're doing well and it won't happen here'."

"It can happen here and it is happening here, in Aberdeen", she says.

Image source, NHS Grampian

In answer to a question on the Aberdeen cluster, the first minister says: "We will be looking for lessons that we can apply elsewhere in Scotland."

Ms Sturgeon speculated that we could be seeing a pattern where people have gone from one pub to another on the same night and spread the virus.

"It may be that we have to look at some of these lessons to think about whether we need to tighten up some of the restrictions about how hospitality is operating across the wider country."

Ms Sturgeon said she did not want to rush to conclusions but was making sure there was rapid assessment.

Image source, Getty Images

Steven Brown from STV asks the first minister if she thinks she will know if the measures in Aberdeen will make a difference in seven days.

Ms Sturgeon says she cannot look forward seven days and predict with certainty what she will be reporting.

She says that because this is the first local lockdown, she wants to review it quite often.

She says she wants to "stamp on this outbreak before it spreads further than Aberdeen".

"If seven days from now we think that concern is less, then perhaps we can review things," Ms Sturgeon said.

"So let's take it step by step and all of us do the right thing until then".

David Shanks from BBC Scotland asks if the tracing efforts in Aberdeen have been up to scratch and whether further restrictions for the city are anticipated.

The first minister says it is important to trust the experts to trace the virus, and it is because of them we know about the 20 other licensed venues involved in the cluster.

She says none of the action being taken is "easy", but the government "will not hesitate" to take further action if it is judged necessary.

Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith praises the efforts to trace contacts in the Aberdeen cluster.

But he says test and protect is not the first line of defence in combating covid-19.

He says people should follow guidance in order to stop the spread of the virus.

Dr Smith says people with symptoms should self-isolate and book a test.

He said it was critical that people contacted by test and protect self-isolated for 14 days.

The first line of defence is the action that we take ourselves, he says.

"We are still in a real daily battle with this virus," the first minsiter says.

Test and Protect cannot defeat the virus on its own, she adds, saying that job is "always firefighting".

"Our job as citizens is to make sure these fires don't start in the first place."

She urges people to continue to comply with the rules and FACTS campaign:

• Face coverings in enclosed spaces
• Avoid crowded places
• Clean hands and surfaces regularly
• Two metre distancing; and
• Self-isolate and book a test if you have symptoms.

Image source, Getty Images

Nicola Sturgeon confirms the 64 new cases in Scotland represents 1.3% of all newly tested people. The total of positive cases in Scotland now stands at 18,781.

15 of the 64 were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area.

267 patients are in hospital with a confirmed case (down three), with three being treated in intensive care.

No deaths were registered in the last 24 hours of people who tested positive, meaning the total remains at 2,491.

This is lower than the 4,208 deaths confirmed by NRS earlier as that figure includes all cases where Covid-19 is mentioned on a death certificate, even if the patient had not been tested.

Image source, bbc

The Aberdeen restrictions will be reviewed in seven days' time, confirms Ms Sturgeon.

They may be extended beyond a week if necessary, she adds.

A list of the 20 licensed venues involved in the outbreak will be published later today, she says, and adds that people who have visited these places recently should be "extra vigilant" about symptoms.

Ms Sturgeon says any staff who were unfurloughed can be refurloughed under the job retention scheme.