Yahoo News Coronavirus: UK facing multiple lockdowns during outbreak, Nicola Sturgeon warns
Nicola Sturgeon has suggested the UK could be facing multiple lockdowns during the coronavirus outbreak.
Scotland’s first minister was speaking after the Scottish government published a paper discussing how the country will remove the current lockdown restrictions.
It warned the country may have to return to lockdown “with little notice” if the measures are lifted and there is a further spike of COVID-19 transmissions.
“We may even have to reverse things,” Sturgeon said on Thursday.
The paper said the measures will be eased in a “phased and careful manner”. Central to the plan will be continued social distancing, while good hand and cough hygiene “must become fundamental habits”.
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It warned that even as lockdown measures are eased, restrictions that led to pubs being shut and public events cancelled are likely to remain in place “for some time”.
Restrictions on some outdoor activities may be eased before those on indoor activities, the report added. Sturgeon later said school classrooms may have to be redesigned to allow social distancing.
The UK’s current lockdown measures will last until 7 May at the earliest.
Sturgeon said at her daily coronavirus briefing: “As we start to lift the restrictions, the real risk is that COVID-19 runs rampant again.
“So a return to normal as we knew it is not on the cards in the near future and it’s really important that I am up-front with you about that.
“What we must do is find a new normal, a way of living alongside this virus – but in a form that keeps it under control and stops it taking the toll we know it can do.
“That means, possibly for the rest of this year and maybe even beyond.
“That’s why talking about lifting lockdown as if it’s a ‘flick of the switch moment’, is misguided.”
Sturgeon went on: “Our steps, when we take them, will need to be careful, gradual, incremental and probably quite small to start with.
“We’ll need to assess them in advance and monitor them in action – sometimes, as I said a moment ago, we may even have to reverse things.”
Her comments echo those of England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, who said on Wednesday that “disruptive” social distancing measures could be in place for the rest of 2020.
He said the restrictions will only be lifted if a COVID-19 vaccine has been found. The chances of that any time, he conceded, are “incredibly small”.
He said: “In the long run, the exit from this is going to be one of two things, ideally.
“One of which is a highly effective vaccine… and/or highly effective drugs so people stop dying of this disease, even if they catch it.
“Until we have those – and the probability of having those in the next calendar year are incredibly small – we are going to have to rely on other social measures, which of course are very socially disruptive as everyone is finding at the moment.”
