Covid in Scotland: Dates for lifting restrictions 'not set in stone'
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Nicola Sturgeon: Having set-in-stone timetable for lifting restrictions would "not be responsible"
The planned dates for easing Covid-19 restrictions in Scotland are "not set in stone", Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The first minister said it would not be responsible to have a guaranteed timetable in the face of the virus, after another day of high case numbers.
Scotland is due to move to level zero on 19 July, before dropping almost all restrictions on 9 August.
However Ms Sturgeon said she would look very carefully at the latest data before confirming this would happen.
The Scottish Parliament is to be recalled from recess on 13 July for MSPs to be updated on whether the timetable will go ahead as planned.
A further 3,799 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Scotland on Wednesday, breaking a trend of five consecutive days where numbers fell from the record highs seen the previous week.
Ms Sturgeon said case numbers were "much higher than we want them to be", but said it could still be the case that the recent increase was stabilising.
She said: "We are literally monitoring the data on a daily basis right now, as we head towards the review point next week where we will be able to say what our plans are for 19 July.
"We are looking at this very carefully. My biggest concern right now is that even though we are seeing a weakening of the link between cases and hospitalisations, if we have a high number of cases even a lower proportion of those cases ending up in hospital can put pressure on our NHS."
The first minister said restrictions would ultimately be eased, with the vaccine programme providing a clear route out of lockdown, but said it was important to do this "at a sensible pace".
Asked if this meant the dates set out in the government's latest route map out of lockdown were not set in stone, she replied: "Nothing, against a global pandemic of an infectious virus that has got more infectious and transmissible with the Delta variant, can be set in stone.
"I want as much as everybody does the certainty of 'by this date we will be free of everything and there will no longer be any restrictions'.
"Every part of me wants that and every part of me believes we are on a journey towards that and heading in that direction.
"But to set dates in stone while we still face that virus would not in my view be responsible. My job is to take hard decisions that get us as safely as possible to that end point."
Nicola Sturgeon said it would not be responsible to set dates in stone
Meanwhile, opposition parties voiced alarm at the performance of the Test and Protect contact tracing system, after figures suggested it had fallen below the benchmark set for it by ministers.
The government wants the service to have completed contact tracing in 80% of cases within 72 hours of their being logged in the system.
However the latest report from Public Health Scotland, external suggested that 26.8% of cases in the five days to 2 July had taken more than three days to close - down from 34.9% the previous week.
Scottish Conservative MSP Annie Wells said the system was clearly "completely overwhelmed" by the recent surge in cases.
She added: "A robust Test and Protect system remains a critical tool in fighting the virus, but the SNP government have failed to ensure it has all the resources it needs."
Scottish Labour's deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the Scottish government had "lost control of the pandemic", saying: "Test and trace is in disarray and cases are spiralling - we cannot have the people of Scotland put in danger due to the failure of the SNP."
Contact tracers are now regularly facing as many cases in a day as they had to deal with in a week earlier in the pandemic.
They have moved to prioritise telephone interviews with cases where there is a "high risk" of transmissions, with many other people who test positive contacted via text message and asked to fill out an online form.
Ms Sturgeon acknowledged last week that the system was "under pressure" due to the surge in cases, but insisted it was "coping well".
It came after NHS Grampian warned that the increase in cases meant it would not be able to trace the contacts of everyone who tests positive.
