Coronavirus: Last part of Scotland sees travel limit lifted

Dumfries was one of the towns kept under the leisure travel restriction

A last slice of Scotland has seen a five-mile limit on travel for leisure purposes lifted.

It was removed for the vast majority of the country on Friday but remained for parts of Dumfries and Galloway affected by a cluster of coronavirus cases.

The Scottish government has now received sufficient assurances to see it join the rest of Scotland.

Residents of Annan, Gretna, Dumfries, Lockerbie, Langholm and Canonbie were covered by the limit.

Residents of Canonbie will be able to travel further for leisure now

It was decided to keep the restriction in place due to a cross-border outbreak affecting southern Scotland and the north of England.

In total 12 cases were identified and 23 contacts traced and offered tests and told to self-isolate.

It resulted in an effective extension of the ban on leisure travel of more than five miles in the area affected.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said there had been no new cases in the past 24 hours.

The limit in parts of Dumfries and Galloway has been removed

"The view of the incident management team is that all chains of infection within Dumfries and Galloway have now been identified and controlled," she said.

"As a result I can confirm that we are today lifting the recommended travel restriction that had applied to people in certain postcodes around Gretna, Dumfries and Annan."

She thanked everyone involved in dealing with the outbreak and confirmed visits to care homes in the affected areas could also take place under the guidelines applied throughout Scotland.

"Although we all have a part to play in seeking to avoid this, it is the case that as we continue to lift restrictions of lockdown there will inevitably be more clusters like this one in the weeks and months ahead," said Ms Sturgeon.

"So it is reassuring - while we are absolutely not complacent - to see that this one appears to have been controlled so rapidly and so effectively."

Analysis: By Giancarlo Rinaldi, BBC news website south of Scotland reporter

Lockerbie was another of the towns affected by the limit

The people in these parts of Dumfries and Galloway will be pleased to join the rest of Scotland in seeing the leisure travel limit lifted.

After a considerable length of time without a single positive case, the cross-border "cluster" felt like a major setback.

Contact-tracing and testing appears to have been swift and successful despite what was described as a "complex" situation.

Any lessons learned in the south of Scotland will surely be used in any other outbreaks which, we have been told, will inevitably come.

Meanwhile, residents of the affected communities can finally enjoy their whole region - and beyond.