Covid: Action may be needed to halt new strain, Nicola Sturgeon warns

More preventative action may be "necessary" to stop a faster-spreading strain of coronavirus taking hold, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Her warning followed a meeting of representatives from the UK's four nations to discuss the new strain.

The Scottish cabinet was meeting on Saturday to discuss the situation.

Boris Johnson has announced tougher Covid restrictions for parts of England and a more limited relaxation of Christmas household mixing rules.

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In a news conference the prime minister said the new strain "may be up to 70% more transmissible than the old variant" although there was no evidence it was more deadly or led to a more severe illness.

The World Health Organisation was notified of the UK's findings on Friday night.

According to public health officials, the new variant - which has been identified and is known as VUI - was first seen in mid-September in London and Kent. By December, it had become the "dominant variant" in London.

Mr Johnson announced tougher measures for London, south east, and eastern England with the worst affected areas moved into a new fourth tier of restrictions.

The planned relaxation of Covid rules for Christmas has been scrapped for large parts of south-east England and cut to just Christmas Day for the rest of England.

'Preventative action may be necessary'

Earlier, in a tweet, Nicola Sturgeon emphasised that cases were currently at a "lower level in Scotland than [the rest of the] UK".

But she added: "Preventative action may be necessary to stop faster spreading strain taking hold."

Ms Sturgeon will hold a briefing later on Saturday, which will be simulcast online, on radio and on TV.

There will be a special edition of Reporting Scotland covering the briefing from 17:25 on BBC One Scotland, and it will also be broadcast on the BBC Scotland channel.

On Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon confirmed nine cases of the new variant had been identified in Scotland.

The cases were all detected in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area, and date back to the end of November.

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The Scottish government has refused to rule out bringing in stricter measures after Christmas.

On Friday, it said "every possible option remains on the table" when the levels of restrictions are reviewed on Tuesday.

Wales and Northern Ireland have already announced post-Christmas lockdowns.

Covid figures published at 14:00 on Saturday showed Scotland had recorded 41 new deaths and 572 positive tests in the past 24 hours.

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