During her statement to Parliament, the First Minister covered the following (10/11/20):
The FM confirmed that additional 832 new cases of COVID-19 had been identified, bringing the total to 75187. She also confirmed that 1239 people were in hospital, with 102in ICUs. She further confirmed that there had been 39 additional death reported in the previous 24 hours bringing the total to 3079.
Prior to outlining the revised level, the FM praised the effect that the restrictions had been having but also warned viewers not to expect many council areas to be reclassified.
The FM confirmed that no local authority would move to a lower tier, stating “It would not be prudent to ease restrictions today. While no local authority will move to level 4 this week, there are a number that are giving us some cause for concern and we will be monitoring these particularly closely over the next few days.”
Highland, Orkney, Moray, and Shetland were announced to be remaining in level 1.
The FM announced that, in the island authorities, people will be able to meet in one other household with a limit of six people.
The FM confirmed that Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, DNG, Borders, and Argyll and Bute would remain at level 2
The FM also confirmed that Angus, Fife, and Perth and Kinross would move to level 3 from Friday. “The advice of the Chief Medical Officer and National Clinical Director is that level 2 restrictions may not be sufficient to slow down and reverse increases of this magnitude and, as a result, an early move to level 3 was strongly recommended.”
The FM also noted that the level 3 areas were under constant review, indicating that some were close to level 4, but that no areas were to be put into level 4 at the moment.
On the subject of travel restrictions, she said: “Let me stress the travel restrictions that remain essential to tackling the virus. These will remain in guidance over the next week but we continue to prepare the regulations, and resolve the practical issues, that would be required to put them into law.”
The First Minister also reiterated the current guidance, “If you live in a level 3 council area, do not travel outside your own local authority area unless it is for essential reasons such as work that can’t be done at home, healthcare, or caring responsibilities. And if you live elsewhere, do not travel into a level 3 area, except for those same essential purposes.”
The Covid protection level (tier) for each of Scotland’s local authority areas and guidance on what you can and can’t do has been published on the Scottish Government website here.
The FM closed by reiterating the rules that are currently in place as well as the FACTS guidance.
In the questions session, Scottish Conservative Holyrood group leader, Ruth Davidson, quizzed the FM on her plans for the imminent Pfizer vaccine, Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard, pressed the FM on the restrictions and their legal enforceability, Green co-convener, Alison Johnstone talked about the UK Government, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Willie Rennie, clashed with the FM on student testing. Further, Both Maurice Golden and Bruce Crawford asked the FM about the support available to the tourism and hospitality sector, mentioning self-catering specifically.